Songhai Diaries
by Circeus
Summary: Set in Lord Archive's Diaries universe. Three Malian children are whisked to another world. They now must struggle to keep up with life and save the world, sometimes simultaneously. Rated M for later chapters.
1. Leave me Alone!

This story is set in Lord Archive's Diaries universe. Al rights to Digimon belongs to Toei, Saban and a bunch of other companies. The diaries universe belongs to Archive; I only toy around in the sandbox. However, Songhai Diaries characters and storylines still belong to me.

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Chapter 1: Leave me alone!  
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Earth, a world filled with humans oblivious to the realities of greater schemes. A world often called the blue marble. At the junction between the largest desert on this world and the savannahs of Sahel, on a bend of the Niger river sits the large town of Bamako, capital of Mali. In the well-off Hippodrome neibourghood one can spot many large government estates, like the Konate family's.

Eleven-years-old Enitan Konate was a spoiled kid. He had all the toys a kid from a more developed country could wish for, a father well paid for his high- ranking position in the government, popularity, links to the world in the form of Internet and phone, and an ancestry anybody would envy him. And he hated it. All he wanted was for his parents to pay attention to him, just once. They were always just too busy to fulfill so little a wish.

And then there was Ife. If she would only stop paying him attention. Ife Cisse was the young girl who served the family. A year ago, his mother had decided their standing required them to have a maid in residence. However, she decided a professional would have been too costly. She looked around while travelling, and met a Peul family looking to place their daughter. She jumped on the occasion and paid them a thousand CFA francs. Ife was sweet and qualified enough not to get into any trouble with his parents.

While others servants like her were regularly beaten, she took the work heartily and was only slapped once, after she had broken a precious faience plate. His parents didn't know she escaped the house as often as she could to listen to Bamako's numerous griots. She herself came from a family of traditional storytellers and desperately wanted to complete her initiation.

Enitan was currently sitting in front of his computer, blissfully chatting away with some French kid probably unaware he was talking to an African. The door opened behind him and Ife entered, unaware of his presence, accompanied with the light sound of the broom brushing on the floor.

He spun around on his chair, his brows joining on his forehead and his mouth so distorted by anger he was about to grow new scarifications. The girl was obliviously moving her broom several inches above the floor, her mind lost in her own reverie as she stared beyond him.

"Nahamu!" he yelled. The girl eeped. When Enitan used that name, he meant business. "I've told you before. Countless times. You knock before coming in!"

"Nahamu, nahamu," she answered, justifying her nickname, "I can't be expected to knock when you're supposed to be at school, you know," she tried to justify herself, looking down. Enitan sighed deeply.

"I know, I know," she added, "you always skip school."

Enitan did that on a regular basis. He paid a fellow student to tell him the dates of the exams and still got grades good enough to be first of class. Not a difficult feat, he thought, considering most of the teachers wouldn't have got through their own exams. She looked reproachfully at him.

"Still, you could at least keep a pretence of doing so. You know I'm supposed to tell your parents about it." Her voice lowered to a whisper as she spoke and looked away, her blushing hidden by her dark complexion. Enitan shrugged.

"If only they cared about it," he muttered before turning back to the computer, only to see his interlocutor had disconnected. Not in the mood for any more writing, he decided to go watch some TV instead. Ife followed him silently.

When he entered the living, he was stopped cold. Another kid, about his age and wrapped in tattered jeans that appeared to be held together with a rope was trying to scurry back through the window. Enitan squinted.

"Ife, gimme the green porcelain leopard on the bookshelf, quick."

Ife, petrified at the sight, grasped the trinket and dropped it in the boy's extended hand. In a swift, accurate movement, Enitan threw the grinning animal. The green dash flew across the room and met his end in a sound collision with the back of the other kid's skull. Small shards of porcelain streaked on the floor, one coming to rest against Enitan's foot. The would-be thief slumped, his head and arms hanging over the window's edge. Ife finally reacted, producing a short shriek. Enitan shook his head as he walked forward to the other kid and pulled him back into the room.

Ife, who had stood dumbfounded at the door, moved to enter, but Enitan stopped her.

"Don't. There're shards everywhere."

She looked down and remembered she did not wear any shoes.

"Get ice from the kitchen. Wrap it in whatever you find. And slippers," Enitan continued.

She nodded nervously and hurried down the hall until she reached the stairs. Meanwhile, Enitan set the other kid on the ground, making sure he did not lay him down on a sharp bit. It was not easy. Enitan was not the fittest kid around, and the other was slightly older and of a better built than him. He set his head on a cushion. Then he sat next to him. _Where is she?_ Able to notice a cue when she was given one, Ife entered the room with a dishcloth wrapped around a few ice cubes. Enitan snatched the humid cloth from her nervous grasp. If she kept twisting it around she was going to drip water all over his mother's precious carpet. Then she picked up her broom and started to collect the porcelain pieces. Enitan noticed she took great care of not damaging them further

"What are you doing? Are you really planning to glue it back together?" he asked her.

"I can't leave it like that!" A slight panic coloured the girl's voice. "Your mother will got nuts!" Enitan had to roll his eyes.

"Come on! My mother hated that cat. She won't even notice it's gone until somebody actually tell her."

"You sure? Are you going to...?" she looked at him hopefully. He smirked.

"Of course not. Unless you decide to tell them I wasn't at school today."

"You sure?"

"Walai! Promised!"

Enitan tied the cloth around the older kid's forehead so that the ice pressed against the lump in the making. He knew that wouldn't do much in the scorching May heat, but it would still help a bit.

At this moment, a piercing screech erupted from somewhere in the house. It raised in pitch until Enitan and Ife had to cover their ears in a vain attempt to protect their hearing. Just when Enitan thought his eardrums would tear away, it stopped abruptly.

"What was that?" Enitan asked. Ife shook her head.

"No idea. I think it came from down the hall."

As she pointed with her hand, a beam of white light shot from Enitan's room toward the three kids. Those that were conscious shielded their eyes from the blinding flash. For a split second, the light escaped from all the house's windows into the bright afternoon. When it finally subsided, only the cold, wet cloth was left on the floor of a very empty living room.

* * *

His feet were wet. Enitan did not like that. Not only because it was a health hazard in Bamako, but because it probably meant there was water all over his mother's marquetry and carpet. She'd go nuts. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was blue. 

Not something blue. Blue colour. Just a blue void with a dark stripe across it. Probably the sky. Then he reached out and the dark stripe fell down on him. It was a spear previously stuck in the ground. Not, fortunately, in the living room's floor. That called for another realization. He wasn't home. And from the smell, he probably wasn't even in Bamako. He looked around, and noticed he was on the shore of a large lake surrounded by a savannah punctuated with the occasional tree.

"I must be hallucinating," he said aloud as he got up, brushing the sand from his nude arms. He froze and blinked. "Wait a minute..."

The boy looked down looked down at himself and screamed.

"Where are my clothes?"

He was not hallucinating. He was having a nightmare. Then Enitan noticed he was not totally devoid of clothes. He was only wearing a loincloth. He felt around to make sure the short garment would not unexpectedly leave him, and his hands fell on something clipped to the leather cord.

"Uh? What's that?" he asked nobody in particular.

The thing looked like an oval handheld video game, white with dark blue trims. He turned it over to try and find a brand's name or logo, but nothing came up. As he tried to press the buttons, he heard voices beyond the tall grass. This reminded him in the worst way that he would not have described what he wore as a piece of clothing. Finding no other solution, he ran into the lake until the water rose to his chest, leaving the spear and strange device on the shore. Two shadows similarly clothed (or rather, similarly lacking clothes) detached themselves from the sky as they walked over the small hill. One of them had a longbow strung across its back.

"Enitan! There you are!" he recognized the voice and mentally cringed.

The two silhouette ran down the hill and stopped at the shore. Ife had the longbow across her shoulders and an ornate quiver of arrows on her back. Enitan recognized the other silhouette as the kid he had knocked out back home. A sling hung from his side. Both of them had devices similar to the one he had left ashore. Ife's eyebrow arched as she looked at him.

"What are you doing in there?" she asked. Enitan thought quickly and did as if he was trying to clean his foot.

"I walked in something."

Ife's other eyebrow raised to join the first.

"Okay, okay! I didn't want anybody to see me like this!"

The two other kids blinked. He sighed.

"It's like being in the nude! I mean... I'm not used to it being so..." he fumbled around mentally, "_breezy_ down there!" he eventually uttered, at a loss for a better word.

Ife and the thief exchanged a look and broke into uncontrollable giggles. Enitan walked out of the water and picked up the spear and device, glaring at them all along. Then a thunderous yell came from the water.

"Who dares disturb my lake?"

Ife shrieked. Enitan turned around and was faced with a nightmarish sight. The creatures was over a dozen meters long, his body covered in armoured plates ending in a scorpion's tail tipped with a scarily large blade. Several more blades sprouted from his back and its head was completed by two huge shrimp-like tentacles. Said tentacles were currently busy trashing around in anger. Enitan swallowed loudly. Nothing like a huge problem to make you forget all your little troubles.

"Any ideas, guys?" Enitan muttered.

"Running sounds like a good idea," the other boy answered.

Making the advice theirs, the three children spun around and ran like mad. The creature yelled in rage as they climbed up the hill.

"Stinger surprise!"

Enitan forgot the golden rule and slipped a look back. The creature was sending a yellow energy ray from it's tail, carbonizing everything in it's path.

"Damnit damnit damnitdamnitDAMNIT!"

He scurried up the hill more desperately. Just as he prepared himself to topple over the crest, a hidden trap opened in front of him and two hands grabbed his shoulders, pulling him into the darkness.

* * *

Enitan panted heavily. He could hear the other's breathing just a few feet away in the darkness. 

"Ife?" he asked.

"I'm here," she answered. She was just in front of him.

"You okay?" he inquired again.

"We're alright. My head still hurt though," a reproachful voice answered. The other boy was apparently standing right behind Ife. Enitan blushed.

"Sorry 'bout that," Enitan apologized.

"Nah, t's okay. I earned it. Just gonna have to be more cautious now."

His voice became faint as he walked away in the darkness. Enitan blinked and shook his head.

"Where are we?" Ife asked.

Feeling around, Enitan found earth. Earth to the right, to the left and above.

"Some kind of tunnel," the other boy answered first. "There's another one going on the right here."

Enitan and Ife ran up to him.

"What are you doing?" Enitan asked.

"Trying to find another exit. Don't feel like explaining Mr. 'Nobody Disturbs My Lake!' that I'm not from around here."

"But what if there are more of these things?" Enitan asked.

"Well, then we're screwed up either way. I'd still prefer being screwed up in plain light, though. I... I don't like darkness."

He persisted forward.

"That's an option like another, I guess," Enitan agreed. "My name's Enitan, by the..."

"I know," the slightly older boy interrupted him.

Enitan blinked again.

"How do...?" he started.

"Your girlfriend kept calling out your name after we woke up."

Enitan froze on the spot. Behind him, Ife eeped.

"She is _not_ my girlfriend!"

A snort. "Yeah yeah. I'm Naba. Naba Culibali."

The boy kept walking as if they weren't there.

* * *

As the voices faded away in the bowel, two other shadows walked out of the first tunnel Naba had found. They talked. 

"Them? Are you sure?"

The first's voice had a squeaky quality reminding of a rubber toy.

"Of course I am. I can feel it with all my heart. Can't you?"

The other was very raspy. If sandpaper had a voice, it would sound exactly like that one.

"Yeah, I can."

A pause. then they spoke together, whispering the names they've waited so long to hear.

"Ife."

"Naba."

* * *

"Aw man! I hate guard duty!" Gabumon moaned. 

The yellow horned lizard paced back and forth near the entrance to the travelling galleries. A column of smoke escaped from the village, a hundred yards away, and for a few minutes he spent time by putting figures in the moving shapes. He eventually gave up, plopped himself against the large tree that flagged the entrance and twiddled the tip of his tail.

* * *

Enitan felt like they had been walking for hours in the dark. Naba plodded forward relentlessly, occasionally pointing at a branching tunnel on either side. The gallery was just large enough for them to stand up. Enitan supposed it was either the work of small people or a very large worm. He desperately hoped the former hypothesis was incorrect.

* * *

Gabumon hummed to himself as he waited for Wormmon and Palmon to come back with their water load. He wondered why Wormmon was not the one waiting, as usual. Sure, he had drawn the shortest straw, but how could the caterpillar carry the water-skins anyway?

* * *

"Hey guys! I think I found the exit!" Naba announced, having found a wooden panel with a handle. 

He tried to push it open, to no avail.

"Damn! I think something's blocking it."

Enitan and Ife joined him, but despite all their efforts, they could not force the trap open. Then Enitan felt a length of rope against his cheek and he understood.

"Silly you! The door opens on the inside!"

* * *

Gabumon interrupted his humming and snapped his fingers. 

"Damn! I feel like I'm forgetting something..."

* * *

"You sure?" Naba asked. 

"Of course!" Enitan answered smugly. He pulled on the rope, causing the door to violently open, shoving Ife and Naba away from him.

* * *

Gabumon continued to snap his fingers absent-mindedly. 

"Come on..."

His annoyance was replaced with glee and he pointed forward with his hand. Then he disappeared from sight.

* * *

A creature crashed through the opening, falling straight on Enitan. He panicked. 

"Argh! Get it off! Get it off!"

Ife and Naba backed away further, more worried about the spear Enitan waved around blindly then the smiling yellow lizard that sat on him.

"Never sit... on the... trap." Gabumon realized too late what was happening. He jumped off the child and rushed to help him to his feet, rambling worriedly.

"OhI'msosorryAreyouokayI'msorryI'msorryIwon'tdoitagain-"

Thwack!

"Get away from me!" Enitan yelled.

Gabumon rubbed the side of his head where a spot was rapidly turning purple. Ife walked slowly toward the spear-bearing kid.

"Calm down, Enitan," she said soothingly. "I don't think he's going to hurt you."

"Of course he won't!" another voice rasped.

Ife could hear every bump and rasp in it. It was a well-worn voice. A plant with a pink flower atop its head and two leafy arms reaching to the ground and a green caterpillar with stout earwig-like pincers were standing next to the bemused lizard.

"He's not going to hurt his partner. Right, Gabumon?" the insect added.

"Of course not," the lizard answered. Ife noticed his voice was very soft, like smoke. He seemed to come to a realization "My... partner? Enitan..." He pronounced the name as if it was only a faint memory. "Enitan!"

The boy, surprised by the newcomers, had let his guard down and was taken completely by surprise when the lizard lunged to hug him, laughing joyfully. Enitan tried to escape the creature's hold with all his might.

"Argh! Let go, you monster!"

The other kids and digimon collectively facefaulted.

"I think they've got a few issues to sort out," Naba stated.

"You tell me," Ife retorted.

She was busy trying to keep Enitan from whacking the lizard across the forehead with his spear again.

* * *

"No! No way I'm going out there to fight whatever just _might_ be trying to invade this place!" Enitan yelled. 

It had taken a lot of explanations just to get the boy to stop whacking the digimon (especially Gabumon) whenever they came too close to him. The digital world, digimon partners, chosen children and their destiny, it was all a lot to take in. Still, Palmon had thought the kid would be easier to convince.

"But Enitaaaaan!" Gabumon moaned.

The digimon put both hands on his shoulders, but that only made the boy angrier and he was shoved away. Gabumon fell on his butt. He looked up at the boy with sad, teary eyes.

"You!" Enitan pointed an accusing finger at the fallen digimon. "Stay away from me! There is no such thing as 'destiny'! I am master of my own future and I will not let monsters from another dimension interfere with it!"

He ran out of the village, past the enclosure, past the crops and the cotton tree. He ran forward blindly. Back in the village the others started to become nervous.

"The night is falling," Ife noticed, "Mr and Mrs Konate are going to fret out."

"The night!" Gabumon exclaimed. "_They_ come out at night! I must find him!" And with that he ran away too. Wormmon, Naba and Ife moved to go after him, but Palmon extended her fingers to stop them.

"Not now," she advised, "that's just going to make more people out in the dark. I'm sure Gabumon... can handle this."

They walked back to where a large fire was being lit in the middle of the village.

"I have to go home now," Ife sighed. "Is there one of these portals nearby?"

The digimon showed the kids the way to a TV set embedded in the wall surrounding the village.

"Are you going to stay?" Wormmon looked up to Naba hopefully.

"I guess I am. There's nothing for me back there, really."

"Ooh!" the small digimon trembled with excitation. "Come! I'll show you my home!"

As they walked away, Ife and Palmon glanced at each others

"I'm sorry," Ife answered the digimon's mute question.

They looked into the other's eyes. Then the girl pulled her partner into a hug.

"Why?" Palmon asked.

"I have to answer for Enitan's absence. That'd make too much explanation."

She pulled away from the hug just a bit and planted a kiss on her partner's forehead.

"I'll be back, I promise," the girl added.

She gave the digimon another small hug, then pointed her digivice toward the TV set as Palmon took a step back.

"Now, how do I activate thiiii..."

An erruption of light and her being sucked in the screen interrupted her in mid-question.

* * *

Gabumon traced Enitan to a ravine over a kilometre away from the village. The boy was curled up in a ball right next to the small trickle of water at the bottom, mumbling incoherently. His voice and the sound of water mixed into a chant to the shimmering moonlight. The digimon went to sit by his side. 

"We have to go back. It's dangerous out there," he stated.

"When did you grow fur?" Enitan asked out of the blue.

The question took the digimon by surprise, but he decided to answer it.

"It's my pelt. I don't usually wear it in the day because of the heat, but at night, I have to wear it. I'm kinda cold-blooded, you see, and it gets so cold I could barely stay awake without it," he explained.

Enitan nodded without a word. Indeed, he could feel the rapid drop in temperature. He fought his instincts to edge closer to the digimon. Gabumon held his hand out.

"Come. We have to go back."

Enitan noticed a change of attitude in the creature. His hand shook. His ears perked up-which was odd, considering they were technically not attached to his body. All his muscles tensed up despite his attempts not to display it. When the boy did not react, Gabumon snatched his wrist.

"_They_'re coming!" he said, "We have to find a tunnel!"

Enitan was about to ask who _they_were, but as the lizard started to drag him out of the ravine, he began to hear it. Grumbling, moaning, rustling and shuffling. Something, or rather a lot of somethings, was advancing toward them, crushing the herbs and bushes as it went along. A few seconds later, Enitan had a lead of several yards on the digimon. They ran and ran until the savannah turned to sand. Enitan tripped and went sprawling. Behind him, Gabumon dropped on all four, looking for something on the ground.

"What's this?" the boy asked, spitting sand.

"There's a trap door around here! I know it!" Gabumon panicked.

Enitan walked back and forth nervously, rubbing his arms to warm them up.

"What is this place?" he insisted.

"The desert. It starts here. _They_ always come from the desert," the digimon answered in short, nervous spurts. Tears streamed from his eyes and under the pelt, trickling from his chin. "I'm useless, I can't even help you to hide."

Enitan suddenly yelped in pain. Gabumon's head snapped up, looking around wildly. No. _They_ weren't there yet, but _they_ were closing in.

"I walked on a cactus," Enitan explained. The lizard looked up to where his shadow detached in the moonlight.

"A cactus? Yes! _Yes_!"

The digimon rushed next to him and started digging at the sand with both hands. Enitan scowled loudly, insulted. The rustling grew closer. Eventually, with a small cry of relief, the lizard pulled a length of chain and tugged on it, triggering a trap-door to open a few feet away from them. Gabumon jumped down in the darkness. Enitan hesitated, his eyes switching between the dark pit and the savannah until one of _them_ came out. One look at its eyes of yellow fire was all it took for him to jump down into the tunnel and slam the door shut.

* * *

What awoke Enitan the next morning was not the light pouring through an open trap door a few feet away. Nor was it the itchy feeling of the straw pile he was lying on. It was hunger. The boy had not eaten since lunch the previous day and was now positively starving. It wasn't the same door they had lunged in to hide from whatever creature had chased them in the dark. This place appeared to be some sort of hub. Several tunnels departed in all directions from the small underground room. 

The hay was piled against the wall. Next to the stack stood a few clay pots. They sloshed when Enitan moved them. Water. Something blue also laid on the ground. Enitan recognized it as Gabumon's pelt. It had probably slipped off during his sleep. He vaguely remembered Gabumon covering him with it before he sat next to the pile to keep watch. The boy looked up at the open trap door. Shadows projected by a massive baobab tree streaked the light that cascaded in. The wide trunk of the tree, only a few feet away from him, actually hid most of the scenery. The shadows were those of the sparse-leaves branches, high above his head. The rustling of the savannah's herbs could be heard coming from the outside. He picked up his spear and used it to steady himself on the way out.

The dry herbs rocked by the wind waved back and forth as a yellow, arid sea. Just over where the leafless branches stopped carrying their shadow laid a bright yellow figure, his legs and tail sprawled out on his stomach. Gabumon had brought and crossed his arms under his chin. The creature snored lightly, his black nose twitching every now and then when it inhaled dust carried by the wind. Enitan nudged the lizard's arm with his foot.

"Hey. Wake up."

"Hmm not now Palmon. Gimme ten minutes," the lizard mumbled in his sleep.

As Enitan stared, he slowly flipped himself over until he was on his side, his back turned on him. The child walked up to him and lightly pricked the base of the lizard's tail with the tip of his spear.

"Come on! Wake up! I'm starving here," he grumbled to himself.

The digimon batted away at an imaginary intruder with a chuckle.

"That tickles!"

Enitan shook his head an kicked the sleeping creature in the leg.

"Come on! Get up!" the boy snapped.

"Uh?"

Gabumon rolled over on his back, his head turned toward the boy. He opened a hazed eye on the world, most of which consisted of Enitan from his point of view.

"Oh, hi Enitan," he said in a sleepy voice.

Gabumon curled and slowly stretched out, allowing the sun to bathe his numb members and his colder underside. Once he was done with that, he sat up in a swift movement and turned to his partner just in time to see him yell in pain and fall forward on him. The pelt and the spear fell to the ground when his hands came up to clutch his shoulder. Three deep gashes slowly dripped blood on his back. The digimon looked at another silhouette that stood where Enitan had been a few seconds ago. The grey-furred, long-eared creature brought its clawed hand to his mouth and licked drops of blood from it.

"Tasty," it said.

It smirked and attacked.

"Paralyze breath!"

Gabumon barely had the time to push Enitan aside before the attack hit the ground. The boy flipped over onto his back. A stone that stuck out of the ground entered the wound, causing him to produce a nerve-curdling yell and pass out in pain. That yell struck Gabumon at the very depth of his soul. He leapt out, summoning all his energy in the most powerful attack he could muster.

"Petit fire!"

The assaulter, however, had only been waiting for such a reaction. He easily sidestepped the attack and tripped Gabumon. The lizard, carried by his own enraged momentum, fell roughly to the ground where he became an easy prey.

"Paralyze breath!"

Gabumon cried out when the attack hit him square on his defenceless back. His hands trashed around in pain. He could see the shadow of the Gazimon standing over him. It raised a dangerous paw.

"And now you die," he said without a trace of emotion.

And he leapt. Unfortunately for him, Gabumon rolled over and the attacker found that he was flinging himself at a metal-bladed spear. The downed lizard had landed his hand on the weapon as his limbs jerked in apparent pain. The attacker's own weight and momentum drove the weapon through the middle of his chest. Gabumon looked in horror as the rabbit-like digimon coughed up a bubble of blood, his eyes became blank and his body limp before he finally burst into small bits of data.

* * *

When Enitan opened his eyes again, it was due to pain. He was still hungry, though. He found out he had been propped up in a hammock that hung in a small earth hut. He looked around. The only other figure in the room was Ife. She looked at him and handed out a papaya without a word. Enitan grabbed the fruit and took a huge chunk out of it. It was painful to move his right arm, so he rapidly began to use mostly his left one. 

"Thank you," he said.

A head poked in with a worried look. Despite the blue fur and the blood that smeared it, Enitan immediately recognized the lizard's silhouette. He assumed the digimon had used the fur to stop the blood loss.

"Is he...?" the newcomer asked.

"He is," Ife answered. "Palmon is a good healer. But he'll tell you himself."

She nodded at the boy. Enitan sighed and addressed the digimon with an equal tone.

"I told you from the start I didn't want to be part of this. All it's done so far was to give me trouble and pain. Will you leave me alone now?"

Gabumon's head dropped as the boy talked. A tear shone in his eye.

"I... I can't do that Enitan," he said hesitantly.

The digimon slowly walked away. The boy resumed his attacks on the fruit, but Ife scowled and slapped it away. Enitan looked up in surprise but recoiled at her deadly glare.

"_How could you_!" she shouted in his face. "He waited for you his whole life. He wants to help you, to be your friend," she continued more calmly, "He saved your life. Twice. And all you could do was shoving and running away from him."

She groaned loudly, unable to find words capable of expressing her emotions. Enitan backed away the best he could without overturning the hammock, unused to such displays of anger.

"_Hera tienan!_" she accused him. "_Hera don bali!_"

Enitan laid there, dumbstruck, the cursing insults coursing through his head like molten lead. It was the worst statement the girl could possibly use. She could rightfully be beaten for saying such irrespectful, horrible things. That he might be so... _Thankless... Ungrateful..._

"You. Are. going. to. find. him. and. you. Are. going. to. apologize," she said, pausing between each words for emphasis.

"But-" Enitan tried to start.

A slap interrupted him.

"NO BUTS!" Ife yelled in his face. "You've run away from those who would help you all your life! You've run away from school, from home, you've avoided me. But you can't run away from him. You can't... You can't outrun your shadow."

She stormed out of the house. The digimon who had come to peer in the hut scattered as she went by.

Enitan laid there for several minutes, incapable of thought. Then he stomped off too. He walked aimlessly around the village, grumbling to himself. How dared she? How could she insult him like that? He eventually walked past the wall.

"How _dare_ she?" he let out his emotions in a random kick at something in the herb.

"Because she's right," a voice answered.

Enitan looked around and saw Naba with Wormmon atop his head. Naba looked at him. He looked at Naba. The thief was the first to break the silence.

"She's right," Naba continued. "What gave you the right to treat him like you did? You could have given him some time to understand you. Heck, you could have given _yourself_ some time to understand _him_, but you didn't even try. He did save your life. Twice no less."

Enitan's fists closed and opened in rhythm.

"She called me-"

"The worst insults to take are also the truest ones. You earned by no other's fault than yourself to get cursed like that," Naba interrupted him.

With these calm observations, the thief left him alone with his doubts.

* * *

Gabumon had found no other places to hide his sorrow but the same ravine Enitan had ended up into. The boy, unused to track things in the savannah, took much more time than the digimon had to get there. He could hear the lizard's cries a good distance away, but did not actually recognize the voice until he saw its owner. He walked down nest to him. The creature was bawling away, uselessly trying to muffle his cries by pressing his pelt in his face. The garment was moist with tears and blood, streaking his face with red. 

"Are you alright?" he asked softly, despite the obvious.

Gabumon spun away from him.

"Go 'way! I don't want you... to see... me like... this!" he coughed up between sobs.

Enitan knelt next to him.

"Oh please! Let me help you! I refused to let you and I almost got killed twice. Don't make the same mistake I did," the boy implored.

The creature whirled and jumped at him. He threw his arms around the boy, his head on the other's shoulder, and continued to cry. Enitan felt a sharp stab of pain when a paw touched the bandage covering his wound, but didn't move. He occasionally rubbed the bumpy spine, leaving the lizard cry his pains out. The crying eventually hiccupped to a halt, but the digimon continued to hug him. Gabumon finally let got of the boy and looked at him with reddened eyes.

"Why did you come for me?" Gabumon asked.

"Someone told me I was being the worst git in history, and cursed my soul to never find peace. That person insulted me and at first I was angry. But afterwards it was pointed to me the worst insults are the true ones. I had no right to do what I did. Can you ever forgive me..." he struggled to remember the name, "Gabumon?"

For the first time, he called the other by his name. The digimon was overwhelmed. He resumed crying. They both cried.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" the boy blubbered.

* * *

They washed the tear marks off each other's face. Enitan was amazed at how easily the coagulated blood washed off the fur pelt. He had expected the operation to require thorough scrubbing and soap. 

"Will you accept that I am your partner?" the digimon asked.

Enitan opened his mouth to answer and let out a small sigh.

"I'm... not sure. I'm not sure I can be that source of power you're looking for. And I'm not sure how I can possibly help saving this world."

Enitan watched his reflection, unable to looking back at Gabumon.

"I'm sorry," he added.

"Then maybe you can accept him as your friend?" an intruding voice proposed.

Gabumon and Enitan looked around. It was Ife. She and Naba were standing on the edge of the ravine with their respective partners. They looked down at the pair. The boy and the lizard turned toward each other. Enitan smiled.

"Sure. I think I could use a real friend."

He didn't see Ife's face clouding over. At this point the water at the bottom of the ravine exploded out and a cackling pillar or blue electricity rose, shooting up to the sky. The kids and digimon scattered with cries of surprise but Gabumon and Enitan would not move. They could not look away from it, fascinated. Enitan approached it.

"Enitan, get away!" Ife yelled.

"No," he mumbled, his hand extended toward the phenomenon, "there's... I must..."

He could make out an object slowly rotating within the blue energy. He snatched it in a swift move. The pillar immediately vanished and the loud cackling noise was replaced with the peaceful sound of running water. Enitan looked at the peanut-shaped object he had grabbed. It was dark grey and white with golden marks. A lightning-shaped blade stuck out diagonally from one of its ends. Next to it was a blue symbol Enitan had never seen before. The other kids surrounded him to get a better view.

"What is it?" Naba asked.

"It's... It's a digimental!" Palmon explained.

"And what am I supposed to do with it?" Enitan asked nobody in particular, examining the object under every angle. Before anybody could suggest an answer, Naba made a more immediate inquiry.

"What time is it?"

Ife appraised the sky.

"About eleven."

"Oh damn. I've got to go back. Fatima's going to kill me!"

He set off quickly for the village, his partner topping his head like an odd hat. Enitan and Ife looked at each others.

"Fatima?"

* * *

---------  
Author's notes  
--------- 

I have written (or at leats tried to) extensive notes to explain a few more obscure references in the story. They are available at my personal site (see my profile for url). I would like like to give thanks to JJriddler, my idea bouncer and surrogate muse extraordinaire, Drakys, fantastic writer and my beta reader for this story. Also a playful smack on the back of the head to Digizane, who unwittingly sparked this in the first place.


	2. The devil went down for diner

**Warning and disclaimer:** The diaries world is Lord Archive's. I do not own it, as much as I might wish I did. I only play in the sandbox. All rights to Digimon belongs to Toei, Saban and a bunch of other companies. This chapter is rated **PG-13** for _icky, but not graphic humor_.

---------  
Chapter 2: The devil went down for diner  
---------

As Naba moved away from them, Wormmon tapped lightly on his forehead.

"Hey Naba, who's Fatima? Your girlfriend?"

The boy laughed out loud and shook his head, immediately crying out in pain. The digimon had latched to his hair to avoid being thrown to the ground.

"Hey, watch out!" he protested.

"Eh, sorry Wormmon. It's just so funny you would say that. I mean, she's twice my age. And besides, she's my teacher," the boy explained, flushing.

"Really? What does she teaches?"

"Maths, reading, French, these things. It's not much, but it'll help me get some money and go back to my village."

"Why don't you live in your village?" Wormmon inquired

Naba sighed.

"It's a long story."

They walked back into the settlement. Naba went up to the portal and pointed his D-3 toward it. He hesitated a second.

"Here comes nothing..."

They vanished in a flash of light.

* * *

Ife and Enitan discussed what to do next. 

"I need to go home. It will take most of the afternoon to prepare supper for six. And I still have to beat all the carpets," Ife said.

Enitan looked at her quizzically.

"Your mother found the cat," she explained.

The boy looked away, uneasy.

"I'll help you, Ife," Palmon said encouragingly.

"Thank you. That's so sweet," the girl smiled back at the digimon warmly.

They had reached the portal too. Ife looked back at Gabumon, who stayed behind them.

"What are you doing? You're coming too!" she called to him.

"Really?" Gabumon looked up.

The digimon ran up to them.

"Uh?" Enitan was slightly taken aback, but Ife glared at him. "Oh, yeah, of course."

Ife held out her D-3 and activated the portal. Enitan felt himself being tugged away, then they were all unceremoniously dropped in a mangled heap on the floor of his room. His shoulder hurt all the more and his foot was wet. Again. Then it was shoved away and Palmon retched.

"Eww! Whatever you walked in was _not_ hygienic!" the plant digimon complained. "And Gabumon, get your paw away from there!"

The boy tried to apologize, but another foot was shoved down his own mouth. He bit down and Gabumon yowled in pain from under Ife's pagne. The girl blushed deeply as the lizard shook himself free of the garment.

"Is that...normal?" the girl asked.

Enitan made sure he was back in his normal clothes. Gabumon massaged his hurt foot.

"Dunno," the boy said, "hope it's not."

He found the digimental on the ground, the blade firmly stuck in the wooden floor. He groaned.

"Mother is going to fret all over again."

Ife discreetly exited the room with Palmon in trail, leaving him alone with Gabumon and an awkward silence. As Enitan's eyes glanced over his desk, he noticed his pile of CDs had decreased in size. He shuffled through it and found out that most of his music and over half his game CDs had vanished. His face contorted with anger and turned a deep shade of purple.

"Naba!" the boy yelled, startling Gabumon. "Oh I'm going to kill that sneaky little piece of rag!"

* * *

The noble kid grumbled to himself while he and Gabumon tied a rope to the poles on each side of the small yard enclosed by the walls extending from his house. 

"I though Ife said your mother asked her to do it," Gabumon said as they hung over the two heavy carpets that laid on the floor of the living room and the entrance hall.

"It was my fault. I don't want her to get in more trouble because she didn't get the time to do it," Enitan explained.

_That and I badly need to hit something,_ he though by himself, _I am_ so _going to flail that Naba when I get a hold of him!_

He handed a broom to his partner and pointed at the carpets on each side.

"It isn't very complicated: you just beat it until it stops twitching, and then until it stops coughing up dust or hairs, and then some if you feel like it," he explained jokingly.

He demonstrated with a few vigorous hits, ignoring the jolts of pain from his shoulder. After a couple of minutes the two were sweating and nearly blind from the falling dirt, but they kept beating at the heavy fabrics. Gabumon tried to get a better angle to hit at a lower corner. However, doing so caused his broom to hit Enitan in the side of the head. The boy was momentarily confused from the shock, but eventually realized he could not have hit himself with his own broom.

One of the first rule of outside work is to systematically check for forgotten gardening tools before walking into an area. It happened so that Enitan, unused to such work, wasn't aware of this rule. He turned around, prepared to yell at the distracted Gabumon, but the digimon happened to take a step back and walk on a rake at the same time. The handle of the tool shot up, but didn't quite reach the classic vertical position that would have ended with a nice smack on the back of the digimon's head because Enitan happened to stand over it, and blocked it with an unfortunately sensitive part of his anatomy.

The digimon noticed he had walked on something and looked around when he heard aloud squeal to see his partner clutching at the pained area. He immediately went to assist the boy.

"Are you okay? Oh gods, I'm so sorry!"

Enitan fell to his knees, his hands still covering his crotch. He groaned, his eyes crossed under the pain and his jaw tensed.

" Walai... I'm giving you a head start," he managed to squeak out.

Gabumon backed away slowly under the attempted glare. Not looking where he stepped was a huge mistake as he suddenly felt something clutch tightly around his foot. Looking down he saw that he had walked into a wooden bucket. He raised his foot and the container followed suit. The digimon sweatdropped. He tried to pull it off with his hands, but the claws of his already larger than normal foot had dug into the wood and would not allow it. He started to jump around, alternatively attempting to pull it off with both hands or shake it off, all without success.

When Enitan's injured organs finally allowed his brain cells to analyze a signal other than pain, he saw his partner jumping around and sighed heavily. The boy approached the creature in order to help him but the distracted jumping lizard landed straight on his foot, sending the kid into a one-legged jig of his own. Gabumon did not even notice it, busy as he was dealing with his own foot- related predicament.

Enitan's own path lead him back between the suspended carpets... and on the rake. Since he was jumping on a single foot, Enitan put much more sudden weight on the long-handled tool. Unfortunately, he also happened to land in a way that prevented it to lever up, and thus a much stronger pain shot in his so far intact foot. With a loud yelp, the boy tried to clutch at both feet at the same time. The ill-fated attempt expectedly ended up with him toppling over straight into one of the heavy carpet, causing the rope to break and the fabric to fall all over him.

As Enitan was suddenly surrounded with what could have otherwise been cozy darkness, Gabumon had gotten an idea and was charging a fiery attack to haul at the offending container.

"Petit fire!"

The ball of blue fire struck the bucket, ignited it, but failed to actually destroy it. This left Gabumon with a rather acute problem: he now had a flaming object attached to his foot. Panicking, he ran around in circles for a few laps before the raising heat started to affect him through his thick reptilian skin. Then he stopped and shook his leg more frantically than ever.

A few seconds of this extremely vigorous shaking finally managed to dislodge the now weakened wood object. Gabumon watched the flaming projectile sail through the air with satisfaction. However, it seems that fate had it in for the lizard that day because he saw with horror that the course of the Identified Flaming Object obviously involved colliding with the figure trapped in the folds of a fallen carpet.

With a loud crack, the bucket shattered into multiple blazing pieces as it struck Enitan straight in the forehead. Gabumon ran up to the boy as he fell over. The lizard grabbed his partner by the lone foot sticking out of the pile and dragged him toward the door as the boy groggily protested. He sat up with a mix of anger and confusion on his face, opened a foggy eye and pointed at something behind Gabumon before losing consciousness for the second time that day, leaving the digimon utterly confused until he looked back and saw that the blazing wooden pieces had landed on the fuzzy carpet, setting it on fire.

"Oh! "Damn damn damndamnDAMN!"" he exclaimed as he rushed to smother the flames.

* * *

Palmon glanced through the door just as Gabumon dragged Enitan's unconscious body by. She rolled her eyes and tapped Ife on the shoulder. Ife looked at the boy and saw the obvious lump on his forehead. 

"Enitan!" she turned to Gabumon "What happened to him?"

The digimon shifted uneasily.

"Well... To be honest I'm not too sure myself."

IIfe sweatdropped and grabbed Enitan's legs to help carrying him up to his room. Doing so, she noticed blood on his clothing and her eyes widened when she realized the wound had reopened.

"Well, uh, I'll go finish the carpets, 'kay?" Gabumon then excused himself.

"The carpets?" Ife wondered, looking as the digimon exited the room, then back at the unconscious Enitan. "Oh, Enitan... Looks like it's not your week."

She shook her head and got up to get more ice from the kitchen.

* * *

Enitan stared down at the charred section of carpet in the middle of the living room. His eyes shifted from the burnt fabric to the digimon, then back to the carpet. The most ravaged part even allowed to see the floor under it. 

"Do I want to know?" he asked.

"Err... likely not," Gabumon answered, looking at his feet.

Enitan sighed and smiled weakly.

"Then don't tell me okay?"

Gabumon looked relieved and Enitan was forced to admit he might be better not knowing what happened. He dreaded the moment his parents would come home. His shoulder was still hurting a bit, even though it was much better off now. However, he could hardly hide the purplish lump on his forehead. And now this.

"Mother is _so_ going to fret," the boy stated.

"Can't we hide it or something?" Gabumon asked, wringing his pelt between his hands.

"Yeah right, let's just move the furniture around. _That_'s going to be conspicuous, won't it? And please stop doing that, you're going to put dirt all over..." Enitan trailed away as an idea shoved its way to the front end of his mind.

He looked up at the digimon with a smirk. Gabumon noticed the look on his face and took a step back.

"What? What's going on?"

"Well, I think I've just got an idea," Enitan explained, still smirking, " but first, you need to wash up."

"Uh?" Gabumon stared at him with a look of utter confusion.

"Let's be honest: we both are pretty filthy..." the boy continued.

* * *

"Why do you heat water to wash up?" the digimon asked curiously. 

Enitan sweatdropped. There was already quite a lot he had had to explain, and he would not add plumbing to the list.

"You might be used to cold water, but I am not," he just said.

The boy staggered around, carrying a large jar full of scalding-hot water, despite the protests from his shoulder. He did not intend to limit himself just because of it. Not now. Gabumon tried his best to stay out of his way as they approached the sanitized space of the bathroom. The digimon pushed the door open and stood in amazement at the sight. White and almond porcelain was everywhere. Behind another, decorated door was some sort of seat that seemed to be fixed to the marble tiling on the floor. The light entering through a small window shone across every surface that Ife could make to glimmer. Enitan's voice eventually disturbed the peaceful atmosphere Gabumon sensed in the room.

"Gabumon, let me in! I swear that thing's hotter than a burning savannah!"

Gabumon apologized and stood aside, allowing his partner to walk in and pour the water in a bathtub that looked as vast as a small lake to the lizard.

"I've never seen something that big. The biggest jars Dinohumon makes are only about my size," the digimon said, awed.

"Well, this one is made of porcelain, not clay, and it was cast rather than molded by hand," Enitan commented.

He turned on the tap, allowing water to flow in until the bath was three- quarters full. He then turned to his partner.

"Well, hop in and start scrubbing! I'll be back in a minute."

With these words he walked out, leaving the slightly confused digimon in front of the intimidating pool of hot water. Gabumon tried to climb over the edge, but couldn't get a good hold on the smooth and wet surface to haul himself. He looked around until he found weird cylinders he piled up so he could actually get in the bath. He tested the water with a finger and found it to be hot, but not so much as to hurt. Gabumon slid into the fuming liquid that easily reached to his chest. It soaked into his pelt, which floated at the surface like a large blue seaweed. The digimon let out a contented sigh; the hot water did feel very nice to his overworked muscles. When Enitan came back, he found the digimon trying to rub the grime that caked his leg, and failing abysmally at it.

"Damn! Why won't you go away?" the digimon cursed aloud.

"Well, maybe if you tried using soap..." Enitan pointed out.

Gabumon jumped up in surprise, splashing some water on the boy as the latter bent over to collect the toilet paper rolls. Enitan straightened up to smile at his partner, who could only give him a blank stare.

"Soap? What's that?" Gabumon asked naively.

Enitan fell over, sending the toilet paper rolling everywhere.

"Well, it helps to clean up things..." the boy tried to explain, "like that."

He handed a random bar to the lizard to illustrate his point. The digimon took it, looked it over and bit a chunk out of it.

"Tasty," he commented.

"Hey!" Enitan snatched it away, "that's my mother's special herbal soap! She's going to kill someone when she sees that!" After a pause, he chuckled softly."But it _is_ kind of tasty."

Gabumon grinned mischievously as Enitan handed him a different bar.

"How would you know that?"

Enitan blushed and looked away, stammering.

"Do I want to know?" the digimon pushed.

"Just rub the soap on your skin. It should wash the dirt away," Enitan instructed, smiling.

He pulled a washboard and plunged it into the bath. Gabumon started to enthusiastically rub the soap on his members and chest, rapidly producing a thin layer of soap bubbles on the water's surface. Enitan grabbed the pelt so he could slide it over the digimon's horn, catching the lizard's attention.

"What are you doing?"

"Well," Enitan said, looking at the washboard, uncertain of how to use it, "for my idea to work, it needs to be shiny clean."

As he spoke, Enitan started to tentatively rub the piece of fur over the brass ridges. Gabumon started to guess where this was aimed, and he didn't like it at all.

"Oh no! You're not covering that up with my pelt!" the digimon exclaimed, grabbing the cloth.

Enitan, however, would not give up so easily. He latched onto his own handful of fur and started to pull back. The dull pain in his back quickly peaked.

"Walai, Gabumon! It's kinda your fault after all!" Enitan groaned.

"Walai this!"

In response, Gabumon put his feet against the side of the bath and used his legs to pull back more forcefully. He was left speechless at the results: Enitan's feet skidded on the wet floor and the boy fell over in the bath. Water splashed everywhere. Pain shot through Enitan's left knee when it scraped on the harsh surface of the washboard. He emerged sputtering, his hair and clothes matted. Gabumon clutched his pelt to his chest defensively.

"Look what you've done!" Enitan yelled.

"Well, it's your fault! It was your idea!" the horned lizard yelled back.

Gabumon then noticed the brown colour spreading across the water. The circle spread from Enitan. The boy glowered at him with crossed arms and pointed at his dark boubou.

"It's earth-based tincture. It runs in water," the boy stated.

When Gabumon raised his pelt out of the water, it had taken a brownish tint over its normal blue hues. The digimon sweatdropped. Then the door opened.

* * *

"Ah... Your father..." Ife's phrase trailed off out of surprise. 

Ife stared in disbelief at the disaster that now was the bathroom, speechless. Dirty water laid everywhere on the floor and walls, soaking up scattered rolls of costly toilet paper. A bottle of shampoo had fallen off the bath and spilled its content across the tiles. Enitan's figure overlooked the wreck from the bath. He had all his clothes on and the intricate black motives were rapidly being ruined as the tinctures ran off. The boy's right hand pointedly rubbed his forehead, while his left one was holding something underwater. She could see no trace of Gabumon until she noticed the bubbles bursting at the surface.

"On the phone," she finally completed her sentence.

Enitan kept rubbing his forehead without looking at her.

"Tell him I'm taking a bath and take the message, will you?"

"Nahamu," she moved to close the door, but Enitan called her.

"Oh and..." Enitan began.

"Yes?"

"Please heat up more water," the boy deadpanned.

* * *

"It's too late. I can't go to class now," Naba sighed. 

He glanced at a group of children and teens attending a French class. The school was set up in a closed yard near Bamako's main market. The only furniture consisted of a large blackboard where the teacher wrote the lesson. The students traced their answer in the dirt of the ground. The scene was set up under the shadow of a small tree.

"Is that your Fatima?" Wormmon asked.

Naba nodded. The teacher covered her hair with the strict head scarf of traditional Islam. Her otherwise good natured face seemed to always be just a moment away from a scowl. Wormmon understood why the boy would not want to anger her.

"So, what do we do now?" he asked his partner.

"We get some cash," Naba answered begrudgingly.

He held up the substantial stack of CD he had taken in Enitan's room and looked them over. The boy would require careful threading with on their next encounter, but it was worth it. He could live a few weeks on the money he would get out of these. And get new clothes. His eyes trailed to down the tattered jeans that was his only piece clothing since he had ran away from the brickyard.

"You want to sell these?"

Naba's eyes widened.

"Of course not! Heck, Enitan would skin me alive!" the boy protested.

They walked along the streets, the populace surprisingly indifferent to the large caterpillar. Larger dried spiders were routinely sold in shadier areas of Bamako, so a talking insect this size wasn't such a stretch of imagination in superstitious West Africa. Naba pointed to an electronic shop with displays bright and shiny enough to make you forget about the actual state of the equipment.

"The owner is specialized in pirated CDs," the boy explained "He'll pay me well for those."

Naba started to juggle with one of the CD box.

"The best part is that I know at least two other shops in the city where I can get money for them too. It's all about knowing what to do with what you take, you see?"

"Doesn't sound very moral to me," Wormmon stated.

He felt sorry that his partner had to resort to such antics to survive. Naba's tone turned angry.

"If there's one thing I have actually learned around here, it's that few things are moral anyway. The least of which is to twist the lives of others," the chosen child said without thinking.

Wormmon's head hung low and Naba realized what he'd just said. He shoved the CDs back in a bag, scooped his partner and held him up to look him in the eyes.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't mean it that way," the boy apologized, " I'm glad I met you, to have someone I know will always be by my side. I've been betrayed too much already."

Wormmon looked up at his partner with a bright smile.

"I'll never leave your side, I can promise that," the digimon cheered.

The boy placed his partner on his shoulder and entered the shop with his head held high.

* * *

Enitan and Gabumon eventually managed to clean themselves. On his way back to his room, he interrupted Ife's setting up of the dinner table. 

"So, what did my father want?"

Ife looked up from placing bowls over the plates and stared blankly for the second it took her to remember.

"He said he got sent on a field assignment in Sikasso, so he won't be here for the next few days. Your mother tagged along to see her sister. He's glad that you came back and that you're alright," she recounted.

Enitan shook his head in disbelief at his parent's carelessness, although he did feel relieved. That would make matters easier for a few days. At least he would have enough time to buy a replacement carpet.

"Oh, and he asked that we take care of the Donsos," Ife added.

Enitan was walking out of the room, but whirled on the spot with a horrified look on his face.

"Are you serious?" he yelled.

Moussa and Koti Donso were the next door neighbours of the Konate family. Enitan could hardly bear the presence of the shallow and stupid couple. He gave an angry sigh.

"When are they supposed to arrive?"

As a cosmic answer, someone rang the door bell. Enitan's hand came up to rub his nose bridge and he ran up to his room to get appropriate clothes. Ife turned to Palmon and Gabumon.

"You two, you go to my room, behind the kitchen," she ordered "And Gabumon?"

"Yes?" the digimon answered with an uncertain tone.

"Your pelt, please," she held her hand out.

Gabumon sweatdropped.

"Aww, no!" he protested.

"It's all we can do under such short notice! Quick!" the girl pleaded.

The doorbell rang a second time, becoming insistent. The digimon reluctantly slipped it over his head and handed it over to the girl with a grumble.

"Thanks, now go!" she ushered them.

Ife ran to answer the door, throwing the pelt to a bewildered Enitan just as he came down the stairs. The boy stared at her questioningly, put she pointed up the mezzanine toward the living room. The boy nodded and went back to set up the makeshift cover.

* * *

"I can't believe this is happening! They're using my pelt as a _decoration_, for Qinglongmon's sake!" Gabumon complained. 

Palmon hushed him down.

"Will you calm down? They're going to hear you!"

* * *

Koti could have sworn she had heard something in the kitchen, but the two children were obviously alone in the house and surprised by the visit. She looked down contemptuously at the slow servant girl. How could Bodi do that to them? She'd have to make sure he got a word about it. Meanwhile, the boy tried to excuse his parents. A large lump on his forehead and blood stain at his knee demonstrated he probably had gotten into a street fight. _Bodi should really keep that boy on a shorter leash,_ she thought. 

"My father offers his deepest apologies for being unable to be here tonight. He sends his regards and regrets for his superior not allowing any delay," Enitan said, showing them the way to the living room.

* * *

"Besides," Palmon continued, "you need to assume your responsibilities. You burnt that carpet, your pelt covers it." 

That remark only got Gabumon annoyed. He began pacing back and forth.

"Again with your 'responsibility' speech. Will you cut it already?" he snapped back.

"No I won't," Palmon retorted. "Admit it: you _are_ rather accident-prone. You couldn't even keep watch without messing things up, and in case you haven't noticed already, it didn't exactly improve your first impression."

Gabumon muttered something under his breath. Palmon sighed in return and put a leafy hand on his shoulder.

"Listen, you need to be a bit more careful from now on. You risk putting your partner at risk, and if he gets hurt, you'll never forgive yourself," she explained.

"I know I didn't," she added in a whisper.

* * *

Enitan could see both adults' eyes going to the blue fur spread on the ground as soon as they entered the living room, but they remained politely silent, conventions stronger than their curiosity. 

"What will you have?" Enitan asked. "Tea? Bissap? Mil beer?"

Moussa shook his hand and declined politely.

"I will take dobleni, if you have any, please," his wife answered sarcastically.

Enitan nodded twice at Ife, allowing her to walk out of the room. The girl rolled her eyes at Koti's request. Bissap, dobleni, all the same. How rude.

* * *

A buzzing sound came from the window. Palmon froze completely. She looked up to see a surprisingly large bee hovering next to the curtain. Gabumon could not contain a snicker. 

"That's gotta be the smallest Flymon I've ever seen. Don't tell me you're afraid of it?" he taunted her.

"You wouldn't want to know," the plant hissed back between gritted teeth.

Palmon shivered uncontrollably as the humongous striped insect flew in and began circling around the small closed room. The panicked digimon jumped from the bed, threw open the curtain and blindly ran out of the room. Ife was just walking out of the kitchen with two large glasses on a silver-plated tray. The digimon collided with her, sending the tray and glasses of sweet liquid tumbling to the ground in a loud crashing sound.

* * *

Enitan attempted to salvage the situation as the two visitors stood up to go see what was happening. 

"Walai! I'm sure it's nothing. Ife is not quite used to our kitchen yet," he said reassuringly.

"Strange," Koti retorted, "your mother would not stop praising that little girl."

Enitan rubbed the back of his head, sweat trickling down his neck.

"Eh." _Come on Ife!_

* * *

"What's going on with you?" Ife whispered to the panicked digimon. 

Her partner stared at something behind her back, eyes wide in fear. Ife glanced over her own shoulder and an Attila of a bee stared back at her. Ife stood there, petrified, until it moved and forced Palmon to shriek and run to the bathroom down the hall. The flower digimon scrambled in the devastated room and slammed the door behind her. Ife still goggled at the closed door when she heard angry footsteps coming from upstairs. She rushed back into the kitchen, shoved Gabumon behind the curtain to her room and grabbed her arm as if in pain.

* * *

Against all conventions, Koti shoved Enitan aside. 

"I might as well get my glass myself!" she said angrily.

She sighed loudly and rolled her eyes when she noticed the fallen tray and glasses. Unfortunately, said rolling of her eyes prevented the woman to notice where she was walking. Something under her foot crunched loudly. Koti froze in place, uncertain as to whether she should check up what she had just squished.

"I'm sorry for the delay, Mrs Donso," Ife said, averting the woman's eye, "I was just coming with the dobleni when this monster of a bee," she nodded toward the woman's foot, "flew in and stung me. I didn't know it could attract bees."

The woman's anger and shoulders dropped. She stood there perplexed as to how to save her image. Ife came to her rescue, mentally cursing the gods who had to be laughing at her by now.

"If you leave your sandal here, I'll clean it for you if you want."

Koti nodded without a word and walked back to the living room barefooted. In her back, Ife sighed with relief.

* * *

Moussa could not help it. He kept glancing at the stripped blue pelt laid on the floor. Enitan had obviously noticed his insisting glances, but would not initiate the discussion. The man wondered why. 

"It's a fascinating piece you have there," he said.

"Ah, err," Enitan hesitated. "Yes, my father bought it in some village near Djenne."

"Really?" the man stared more intently at it, eyebrows raised. "Impressive. I don't think it's a fake. I'll want to have a word with him about it."

Enitan grew more nervous. He looked even more nervous as Koti when she walked back into the room, staring into nothing.

"What happened, my beloved?" her husband asked.

"Nothing, it was nothing," the woman answered.

* * *

Gabumon knocked at the bathroom's door. He could hear Palmon panting on the other side. 

"You can come out now!"

"Are you sure?" came her muffled answer.

Gabumon looked over his shoulder to where Ife was trying to clean the horrible stain left by the squashed body of the insect.

"Pretty sure," he confirmed.

* * *

"Dinner is served, if you will," Ife invited Enitan and the couple to the dining room.

* * *

Gabumon's stomach grumbled loudly for the umpteenth time. 

"Aw man! I'm so hungry!" he moaned.

"Will you just hush up!" Palmon scowled him.

"But I'm hungryyyyyy!" the lizard stressed his point.

"All right, I'll get you something to munch on until we can eat properly," the plant caved in.

She went back into the kitchen, wary not to make any sound. There was a plate on the counter with several balls of brown paste. She took one and threw it to the lizard through the open curtain.

"There! Happy now?"

Gabumon snorted at the food's smell.

"You sure that's edible?" he asked.

Palmon shrugged. She didn't have a very developed sense of smell herself.

"Must be. Ife used some in the sauce."

Gabumon looked over the ball, took a tentative bite and swallowed immediately, like it burned his mouth.

"How is it?" Palmon asked.

The digimon's eyes rolled and he retched noisily, his yellow skin turning an odd olive colour. Palmon's eyes widened. She grabbed a small pan on the stove and went back in front of him.

"You're not going to...?"

Gabumon gagged more loudly, looking at her with panic in his eyes. He reached over, grabbed the pan and threw up in it. Palmon looked away in disgust.

"Eww..."

* * *

Small talk punctuated the dinner. After a while, Koti could not contain herself anymore. 

"Isn't there a sauce or something to go with this?" she asked loudly.

Ife stood up from her chair in a corner of the room.

"Nahamu, my apologies. I left it on the stove so it'd be hot when served and forgot about it," she explained.

"Then go get it!" the woman snapped back, taking no notice of her husband and Enitan's shaking heads.

"Nahamu. I will be right back."

* * *

After a few more retches, Gabumon's stomach calmed down. Palmon took the pan from him. 

"Are you feeling better now?" she asked.

"Yeah." he answered.

The lizard wiped his lips and flopped on his back.

"Not hungry anymore?" Palmon joked.

Gabumon's head raised and he shot her a nasty glare.

"Okay, okay, I get it! Sorry!" she apologized insincerely.

She dropped the pot back on the stove. As she returned to Ife's room and closed the curtain behind her, the human girl quickly walked in and took the same pan before returning to the dining room.

* * *

"My little girl, this got to be the foulest-tasting sauce I've ever eaten chicken with!" Koti said, "And the worst-looking too." 

Ife couldn't comprehend what happened. The sauce had a perfectly smooth texture and balanced taste last time she had tried it. Now she could hardly describe what it looked like, let alone smelled. Moussa tried to calm his wife down.

"There, there, my dear, it's not _that_ bad a sauce," he insisted, taking a large sauce-covered bite and swallowing.

Koti glared daggers at her husband until his stomach gurgled. Mr Donso looked down at his abdomen. When he looked back up, his face had turned greenish. The tall nobleman retched.

"Sorry, gotta go..." he managed to mutter before he scrambled out of the room.

"But the bathroom..." Enitan whispered.

"I haven't had the time to clean it yet!" Ife confirmed.

Mrs Donso looked at the two children with renewed anger. What were they babbling about in front of her? She was about to speak, but a sudden yell, followed by a loud crash interrupted her. The voice of her husband was unmistakable. Enitan and Ife palmed their foreheads.

* * *

Enitan leaned against the door after finally greeting the Donsos away. He looked up at Ife. The girl looked worried beyond all belief. 

"Well, at least they're not coming back anytime soon," the boy joked.

Ife moaned.

"But damn," Enitan said as they walked into the kitchen, "I have to agree, what was up with that sauce?"

"I don't know!" Ife protested. "It was there, perfectly good and all, and then when I brought it in the dining room..."

"What are you talking about?" a voice interrupted.

The kids looked around and saw Palmon and Gabumon coming out from the girl's bedroom. The female digimon noticed the missing pan.

"You mean there was sauce in that? Oh... I think I messed up big time..."

She explained what had happened. Ife's eyes widened when the digimon told her about giving the ball to Gabumon. Enitan cringed.

"That's dried soumbala! It's a very strong condiment!" Ife exclaimed.

Gabumon burped.

"You really use that to flavour food around here?" he asked.

"Well, I don't personally like it either if you want to know," the girl said.

She took a large plate of rice and chicken, and set it on the table in the middle of the room.

"So, who's hungry?"

* * *

The two digimon gobbled the food down at a surprising rate. Ife could barely keep a portion for herself. Enitan snickered at the sight of his partner licking the bowl clean. 

"Is there any more?" the lizard asked.

His hunger had been but sharpened by his earlier bout of sickness. Ife looked down the digimon's frame questioningly.

"I think he just ate his own weight," Enitan commented.

Ife shrugged and set another bowl of rice for the digimon. She was used to make it in excess for later use anyway. Gabumon immediately started shovelling it in his mouth.

"Gabumon's an endless pit when it comes to food," Palmon said.

She used one of her extensible fingers to slap the lizard on the back of the hand.

"What happened to your manners?" the plant scolded him.

The digimon stopped eating for a second and thanked Ife profusely. Palmon took advantage of this moment of inattention to grab the rest of the food for herself. Enitan and Ife sweatdropped.

* * *

**Notes**: 

As usual, explicative notes are available on my personal website, see my profile for the url.

As it might be obvious here, I decided against structured/pre-planned chapter for Songhai diaries, partly because it just cramps my writing. So this fiction will be cut around 6000 words per chapter (mostly) regardless of where that puts the cut.

This particular chapter involves mostly character development, and Songhai Diaries characters will spend nearly as much time dealing with real-life related problems as with the Digital World.

Naba will get more spotlight in later chapters, don't worry too much about that.

Much thanks to go around here for Archive, Drakys and JJriddler. I couldn't do it without all of you!


	3. The great hatred

**Warnings and disclaimer:** As much as I'd like to have enough for that, the Diaries universe is Lord Archive's. All rights to Digimon belongs to Toei, Saban and a bunch of other companies. This chapter is rated **G**

---------  
Chapter 3: The great hatred  
---------

Clay powder. Wheezy breath. Bricks. Heat. Hot bricks. Brick moulding. Pains in the small of the back. Kick. Scream.

"Get up!"

"Leave me alone!" the boy yelled back.

* * *

"Naba! There's someone who wants to talk to you," a voice squeaked

There was a weird weight on his chest.

"Mmh?"

Naba found out he was in fact no longer sleeping and dreaming. He did not open his eyes when Mamadou's voice raised.

"Naba! You know you can't sleep there!"

The security guard shook a stick in his general direction. Naba shuffled to make himself more comfortable

"You've never cared before," the boy moaned in protest.

"You've never strung a hammock across the building before," the man observed.

"What are you babbling abouuuuuuuu!"

As he spoke, Naba turned around and yelled when he found himself falling down. His sandy eyes shot open, allowing him to realize his precarious situation. He was hanging ten feet in the air, his hand grasped around a makeshift hammock made of solid, irregular white strings. Said hammock did hang from two opposite walls inside the large Bamako Public Market. A green head peered overt he edge of the structure.

"Watch out Naba! You're going to hurt yourself," Wormmon said.

Naba glared up at him.

"Now you tell me!"

* * *

The heat from the rising sun rapidly dissipated the night's fog on the river. A stray light beam slipped past the guarding curtains in a small room. It went on to land on a green figure curled in a makeshift bed built from cushions. It stopped on its face and the figure groaned and shuffled so the ray was aimed at its back. In the small camp-like bed also placed in the room, another figure turned over and over, as if in distress. The girl moaned and sniffled in her sleep, tears occasionally rolling down her chin to be sucked down by her pillow.

As the sun rose, the light ray moved until it crawled across her face like a lazy flatfish. Her eyelids fluttered for a half-second and settled on "open" as an acceptable setting, despite the sun shining straight into her eyes. The harsh light forced her to sit and stretch her arms up. Ife rubbed her eyes, but that only wiped up some more tears. Realizing that no annoying eyelids were in the way anymore, the lachrymal glands washed out her face with tears. The girl raised a stoic hand and wiped more of them. She than took a handkerchief and blew her nose loudly. Palmon jerked up at the noise.

"Wha-? uh..." she mumbled.

Ife smiled at her partner, tears still streaking her cheeks.

"Ife! What happened?" the concerned digimon asked.

Ife maintained her smile and continued to dab her eyes, a faint smile lingering on her face.

"Just a weird dream. A very sad dream."

Palmon stretched and rubbed her abnormally large eyes in turn.

"What kind of dream?" the digimon asked as she did so.

Ife hesitated.

"It's hard to describe... I felt... rejected," the girl tried to explain.

Palmon snorted contemptuously.

"Yeah, what a prat!" she almost spat.

Ife started to nod absent-mindedly, then shook her head.

"No! He's got nothing to do with it!" she protested.

* * *

The computer still hummed softly in Enitan's room. The boy was soundly asleep, a thick blanket wrapped around him. Another large lump of sheets was sprawled on the other half of the king-size bed. It rolled to the side and noisily fell to the ground. Enitan sat up abruptly, his doze thrown astray by the sudden sound. His looks darted all over the room, memories of _them_ summoned again. A loud snore came from the side of the bed and Enitan palmed his forehead. The night had been spent turning over trying to find a comfortable position, leaving the boy cranky.

He launched a pillow at the noisy pile of sheets, getting only a short snort for a reaction. Enitan rolled his eyes and curled back under the covers, only to realize that he had just thrown his pillow off the bed. Grumbling, he crammed part of the thick blanket into a makeshift replacement and tried to sleep again.

* * *

Naba was still a bit dozy when he walked out of the unaesthetic white building, so he did not notice the footsteps behind him at first. Living on the streets in Bamako normally taught you to worry about small things like that. Wormmon kept up with his partner easily. As he trod up the back alleys, what had started as a small trickle of worry in the back of his mind progressively raised to blaring alarms of the "get away it's all gonna explode!" sort.

When a hand grasped his right shoulder, he was ready, or at least he thought so. He took a step back to shove his elbow in the stalker's solar plexus. This plan usually ended up with the opponent keeling over in pain. What the plan did not take into account was the presence of the digimon at his side. Naba stepped on Wormmon, resulting in a loud, painful squeal and the boy tumbling over to the side and hitting his head on a wall. Another kid, a bit older than him, stood above Naba and grinned. He crouched to grab at the digimon rolled up in pain on the ground and Naba took advantage of his position to kick him in the jaw, sending the other on his bottom.

"Laji," Naba said.

He recognized his uncle's second-in-command. The Senufo boy was barely a year older than him, and yet he scared the heck out of all the other young workers out of sheer cruelty.

"Naba," the other boy answered as they both got up.

"Seems my uncle hasn't forgotten me. What a surprise," Naba sneered.

He bent over without stopping to look at the other and scooped up the caterpillar digimon. His hands immediately moved to massage the area he had crushed. He glared at Laji and moved aside to make sure he could not get rammed into the wall.

"He's got a message for you: you're still supposed to work for him," Laji stated matter-of-factly.

"And yet he had his most precious resource deliver that message personally? They must be rejoicing back at the brickyard."

Laji shrugged.

"I'm sure they can do without my... talents."

Somehow a fire poker had landed into his hand without Naba even noticing it.

"Now, for the... brunt of the message," he continued, his lips curling into a sadistic smile.

The boy raised the heavy metallic stick with a speed that belied his thin frame and swiped at Naba's chest. The younger boy blocked the attack with both hands, dropping the digimon back to the ground. The moment Wormmon landed in the dust, Laji caught him with a powerful kick and sent him rolling to the other end of the alley, eyes swirling. Both boy grabbed at the poker, trying to wrestle it away from each other.

"I'm going to beat you so bad we'll use your bones for clay!" Laji growled.

His eyes glanced beyond his opponent to the swirly-eyed digimon.

"And then I'm thinking... vivisection."

Adrenaline shot down Naba's spine at this remark. He turned around and used the leverage of the poker to try and throw the other boy over his shoulder. Unfortunately, Laji proved heavier than he first expected and he collapsed with the other boy on top of him. Laji immediately started to choke him with the metallic tool.

"Leave him alone!" Wormmon's voice came. "Sticky N..."

"NO!" Naba interrupted him. "This... is... _my_... FIGHT!"

As he spoke that last choked word, the boy snapped his head back violently. With a satisfying crack, his skull slammed into a nose. Yelling and blinded by pain, Laji rolled off him, clutching at the hurt and bleeding appendage. Naba hurled the poker into the air and it disappeared from sight, landing somewhere on a roof with a clanking sound. Before Laji could react, Naba grabbed the boy by his shoulders and threw him in the open-air sewer amidst unidentifiable vegetable debris. Laji sputtered and looked up at him only to have a knee collide with the side of his head. He collapsed like a stringless puppet.

"I've got to... deal with him..." Naba muttered under his breath.

He panted and massaged his bruises as Wormmon undulated up to him.

* * *

Windows were open at several strategic locations in the house. The configuration allowed for the best ventilation without bringing in too much dust. Ife had been washing clothes for the last hour and was now busy distributing them into the appropriate rooms. A particularly strong gust blew through the house and scattered several pieces of clothing along the hallway. She sighed and knelt to collect them. Another gust blew, making the multiple silver rings at her wrists jingle.

"The desert..."

The words sounded a whisper in the swooshing wind. Ife jumped in surprise and dropped the whole pile of clothing.

"Palmon! You startled me!" she exclaimed.

"What?" came Palmon's voice from the kitchen, at the other end of the hall.

Ife stared and shook her head.

"I'm hearing things..." she muttered and went back to folding the clothes correctly.

"Rejected... refused..." her ears insisted.

Ife whirled around and looked at her surroundings. The whole thing was freaking her out.

"Leave me alone!" she yelled, looking everywhere.

Her voice quivered slightly. Palmon ran out of the kitchen, arms raised to attack any enemy. Ife looked at her and giggled. The digimon's foam-covered hand were hardly menacing.

"What's going on?" Palmon asked.

"I don't know!"

Ife sat down in the middle of the clothing pile.

"I hear whispering... But there's nobody here. I don't understand..."

Another, even stronger gust blew down the corridor, pushing a few stray clothes toward her. When it reached her, a whirlwind formed. The vortex drew the clothes in a rotating movement around her. The girl curled in a foetal position as the voice rose again.

"You can help... Need not... Suffer... Accept... And hear... You can help!" she heard all around.

It kept calling out to her. The whispering rose in volume with the sound of the wind until Palmon's Poison Ivy wrapped around her and pulled her to safety. The vortex immediately receded and dropped the clothes to the floor in a vaguely circular heap.

* * *

Palmon had been caught completely off-guard when the vortex formed. Her partner's yell, resounding over the wind's howls, had caused a visceral reaction. Now the girl trembled in her arms. Her pupils dilated and her eyes darted everywhere like panicked bunnies.

"Ife! Are you okay? Talk to me! Ife!" the digimon shook her partner lightly.

"I hear them!" the girl blurted out, "I hear them!"

Her body went rigid, then limp as a rag doll. Her eyes closed shut and she yelled out until she could not anymore.

* * *

Today was a school day for Naba, and he was not missing it that time around. He rounded the corner into the yard Fatima used as her school ground, wary of anybody already there. It was empty, save for the dust carried by the wind, the blackboard and the leafless tree. Each day the blossom grew and with the incoming rain season the buds would eventually open and reveal their delicate flowers. Naba thought that he probably would not be there on that day and he sighed. Wormmon crawled in after the boy and examined the blackboard.

"Is that this 'school' thing you talked about?"

Naba goggled at his partner.

"No, that's called a blackboard," he explained. "School is... ah... learning stuff so you can work in... the world, I guess."

Wormmon looked back at his partner, not having understood a word.

"Humans are weird," the insect commented for himself.

A low-key singing came from the other side of the wall, approaching rapidly. Soon enough the sound of sand cracking under sandals was added to it. Naba looked around in panic.

"Hide, quick! I'm not sure how she'd react!"

"Where?" the digimon observed.

There were hardly any hiding spots in the yard. Naba looked around desperately until a raven came down to perch in the tree and cawed loudly. The boy looked up. Without a word of explanation he grabbed his surprised partner and held him up as high up as possible against the trunk. The raspy bark grated painfully against the digimon's skin. Fatima's voice came closer and closer to the entrance.

_Gee, thanks for the help,_ Wormmon though.

Somehow he managed to scuttle up to a branch and hide before the woman walked in. All of this under the constant scrutiny of the raven.

* * *

Naba turned around and faked leaning aganst the tree just as Fatima walked in. She carried a long ruler in her left hand and a box of chalk in her right one. She froze for a second upon seeing him there.

"Naba? You are early today," she said.

Her tone was neutral, but a long experience told the boy she was both surprised and angry.

"Yes, I wanted to make sure I wouldn't miss anything," Naba answered, rubbing the back of his head.

"You weren't there for the last lesson," she stated.

Her voice grated in Naba's ears as she said that.

"Yeah, well... You see..." the boy stammered.

She shot him a cold glare.

"I do not need to know what you did. I am but a teacher, I do not expect you to be anything more than street boys when you are all out there. Whatever trouble you get yourself into is none of my concern."

Up in the tree, Wormmon winced.

* * *

It has been said that ravens are very intelligent birds. There has been a whole lot of enthusiasm as to the fact they can use tools. That still does not make them any more intelligent. Raven are in fact tremendously curious and magnificently stubborn. The law of large numbers proves it: enough tries should eventually get you what you desire, and ravens will try absolutely anything. A raven will happily stab its own eye out if it believes that will get him what he wants.

This particular raven wanted Wormmon. Preferably for dinner. The digimon tried the best he could to protect himself against the constant pecking without catching the attention of everyone. A futile goal, as the entire class was happily glancing at him and only lending Fatima half a vaguely attentive ear whenever possible, much to Naba's dismay. The boy tried his best to ignore the giggling and nudging and concentrate on the lesson. Yet the woman blissfully went on with her teaching. She seemed completely unaware of the utter lack of attention displayed by her ragged and tattered class.

Wormmon shoved the inquisitive bird off the branch, but it just flapped its wings and landed again a mere foot away. The persistent piece of fowl hopped up to the digimon and pecked him right between the eyes. This unexpected turn of event elicited numerous giggles from the students. Had he benefited from teeth, Wormon would have needed them to bite his tongue or lip to avoid yelping. He tried to glare between the tears of pain and began to build an attack, hoping to encase the bird in a cocoon and be done with it. Fatima interrupted her speech abruptly, switching to an even more deadpan tone than she had been using so far. As she spoke, she slowly waved her ruler in circles and in the general direction of the students.

"Class, will you please pay a little attention?"

While her tone remained threateningly steady, her arm swiftly raised as she spoke the last word, brandishing the ruler straight up in the air. The wooden stick collided with the branch Wormmon and the bird were perched on, producing a loud, sharp snap of wood on wood. The children, Naba included, all jumped. The raven cawed loudly in protest and flew off. The branch wobbled dangerously under Wormmon's very bad grip and the small digimon was thrown off. He reacted automatically, throwing a thread of silk up to the branch. The rapid reaction stopped his fall a mere inch and a half short of the teacher's face.

"Eh... Shorry?" Wormmon said sheepishly, still hanging to the thread by his mouth.

Fatima had gotten used to a lot of things teaching a class of ragged street urchins. She was used to the scars and the knife wounds. She had gotten quite used to show-off birds. She was rather used to the snakes. She was slowly getting used to the bugs. What she was _not_ used to included talking caterpillars the size of a small dog falling from the sky and stopping to dangle in front of her face. Fatima snapped.

She let out a piercing scream. Her reaction appeared to somehow break the magic of the moment. Her panic spread to the kids and they began to pour out of the yard running. Caught as he was in the trample, Naba never reached his teacher in time to stop her. The women clasped her hands around the ruler, brought both arms over her shoulder and hit the digimon in his midsection with surprising force and accuracy.

The blow smacked the digimon away, but as the laws of physics have it, not hard enough to snap Wormmon's Sticky Thread. The pendulum movement rapidly brought the insect's path toward the woman. Seeing the creatures coming straight back at her, Fatima did the obvious and readied the ruler for a second hit.

"No!" a voice called.

The ruler swung at the incoming insect, but it never connected with its intended target. When Fatima's eyes focussed back on the world, she saw Naba standing in front of her, both arms held above his head in front of the insect. A large reddish mark ran across them. His eyes were closed in a wince.

"He's my... friend," the boy said, slowly opening his eyes.

Fatima panted slightly, still unnerved by the whole ordeal. Trying to calm herself, she meticulously tucked back under her scarf the hair that had escaped. She turned her attention on her student and put up a smile.

"Naba, as much as I appreciate your efforts to follow the class and learn the lessons, I do not... " she paused a moment. "I cannot allow myself to care about what happens when you are not in my class. I do not know where you met this thing, and I frankly do not _want_ to know. I will, however, have to ask you not to bring it during class. I already have enough trouble normally."

Naba took his moaning partner in his hands and nodded without looking back at her.

* * *

"We'll have to return to the Digital World sooner or later."

The statement came out of the blue and took Enitan by surprise, especially since he had been spending the day outside trying to forget the entire thing had ever happened. Ife had not spoken a single word of her own since he had come back. The boy stared at her, uncertain of the proper answer. Ife continued to clear the table without taking any notice of him.

"What makes you say that?" he finally said.

"Well, if we don't, then events will force us to anyway. It's our destiny, remember?" Ife explained.

Palmon and Gabumon's eyes went back and forth between the two children as they spoke.

"I won't take destiny today, thank you very much," Enitan retorted.

"Nahamu. Then you might as well take proactive action, isn't it?" Ife calmly pointed out.

Enitan just snorted.

"We have to wait for Naba anyway, so you will have time to ponder on it," the girl commented as she walked out of the room with a pile of plates.

Enitan growled under his breath. As far as he was concerned, Naba would not be in a state to go in the Digital World (or anywhere else, for that matter) after he was done with him.

* * *

Ife was ordering him around and showing signs of personality troubles. He wanted nothing more than beating Naba an inch short of hell and his wound still threatened to reopen at the slightest maintained effort. What a great team of saviours they were! Enitan sat in the living room hoping to catch some late afternoon cartoons. A few minutes later, Gabumon walked in and slumped on the other end of the couch.

"I'm sorry about that toilet thing," the digimon apologized.

Enitan shook his head.

"Don't worry about it."

A plumber would take care of it soon enough. The image of the digimon hanging for dear life to the flush chain just before the tank tipped over flashed into the boy's mind. He giggled. Then the giggles turned into all-out laughs. Enitan laughed so hard he had to clutch his ribs. Gabumon scowled at his partner. Enitan eventually calmed, wiped a tear of laughter from the corner of his eye and looked back at the pouting digimon.

"Sorry Gabumon. It's just this whole thing and everything that happened in so little time and you, you're here apologizing for breaking the toilet tank."

The boy snickered again.

"I should have realized you couldn't reach the thing in the first place."

"Now you're being a git," Gabumon said.

"My, yes, I am," the boy extended his hand formally. "Hello. My name is Enitan and I can be a complete git," he said with the most serious of faces.

The digimon took the child's hand and shook it.

"Hi. My name is Gabumon and I can be a complete klutz."

They continued to shake hand with goofy grins on their faces until they both cracked up and burst into laughter.

* * *

The sound carried out to the kitchen and Ife shook her head lightly. Better they laugh while it was still an option. Palmon glanced at her partner from scrubbing a pan.

_Why won't you tell me, Ife? Why won't you tell anybody? What are you afraid of? Oh, Ife! Why can't I help you?_

* * *

"How is your locating task going? I thought potential purifiers had energy signatures easier to spot than Mount Rasfoi."

The voice that asked the question did not sound like a single one. It was a strange choir of overly smooth voices dripping with contempt. The voice that responded was barely anything more than a fearful whisper.

"Yes, they do. The signature remained of an amazing force for a few hours before vanishing completely. We suspect that it might have been used already. Clockmon is out pinpointing the exact location where the signature was last detected."

"Speak of the devil," a fly of annoyance dropped in the ointment of the voice. "When will he make his delivery? Your reckless little things are growing hungry."

"Tomorrow, elder. He also asked to be allowed to keep a higher commission this time."

"He must be joking," the voices chorused, "he's been late doing every last one of his deliveries for weeks. I'll discuss it with him when he comes back. Maybe then he'll understand my point..."

Even though it was impossible to see, it was obvious a threatening smirk was drawn across whoever's mouth was speaking. The voice and its owner retired to the outside, leaving in the air a slowly dissipating impression of impending madness.

* * *

Night eventually came to sweep the world into darkness. And the next day the sun arose to find a calm city of Bamako slowly stirring to life on this weekend morning. What eventually awoke Palmon was neither the loud delivery trucks nor the occasional call from a neighbour to a passing friend _en route_ for an early errand. Rather, it was the wheezing sound of her partner's breath bouncing off the walls like the panting of a badly repaired steam engine.

She opened her eyes. Only a notch at first and wide as plates when she realized what the sound was. She jumped off the pile of cushions and landed next to her partner. Ife's face was contorted with repressed pain. Palmon grasped her shaking, sweat-covered hand and the girl's finger tightened around her green hand.

"Ife, wake up!" Palmon implored

She did not get any apparent reaction. The plant digimon resorted to shaking the girl, lightly at first, then with more insistence. The girl still showed no apparent reaction to her best tries until she sprung up and her shoulder hit Palmon in the side of the jaw. The girl began to shiver uncontrollably, yet her breath calmed down to long, drawn out pants.

"It was horrible. So much pain... So much fear..." she whispered in Peul to no one in particular. "No, not fear. Fright. Terror. _Horror._"

Palmon hugged her partner, trying her best to soothe her down and hide her own panic.

"Calm down. Calm down. It was just a dream. No harm. No pain. Just a dream..."

"It wasn't," Ife said abruptly. "It was real. Or will be."

"How can you say that?" Palmon protested. "What happened?"

"I... don't remember," the girl confessed. "It was all foggy and dark, but I could feel things. It was just like yesterday. I heard a voice again. It told me to make up for the... the..." she struggled to remember. "The 'great hatred'. Does that ring any bell?"

Palmon eyed her partner in disbelief. _Well, she's talking to you now. That's what you wanted, right?_ she reflected and wanted to slap herself for having such thoughts.

"It's... Kinda familiar, somehow, but for the love of Huanlongmon, I can't put my finger on it."

Ife shook her head in frustration. She assumed a more resolute look, despite her still trembling members.

"I feel like I'm missing something important, but I don't know what or why..." she whispered.

* * *

In an uncharacteristic move, Enitan spoke to her as she served dinner.

"Hey, Nahamu, what's the problem?" he asked.

Ife nearly dropped the large bowl of millet cake. She averted his gaze and placed the bowl in the center of the table. Gabumon and Palmon immediately dug in without noticing the awkward moment between their partners.

"Nothing," Ife answered in a neutral tone, "What makes you say that?"

"You think I haven't seen the mess you made with the flour? And you've cooked much better rice. Something's eating you."

Ife had to admit he was right on both counts. She still could not make any sense out of the cryptic words, no matter how much she racked her brain. She had been distracted the whole morning and it showed in her cooking. She turned around to walk out of the room. But two voices called out to her.

"Not alone."

"Stay."

She froze in place, unable to do anything but brace herself in expectation of something. Anything. Whatever catastrophe was bound to happen. She had heard that voice the day before, and that very morning. Yet all that came was Enitan's amused question.

"Hey, what's got into you? You'd swear I just insulted your father," he joked.

Tensed in expectation of something she could not describe, Ife was not paying him any attention. Palmon looked up and went pale.

"Not alone. You can help, but not alone," the voice whispered again.

She glanced over her shoulder and her eyes met with three stares. Gabumon had finally stopped eating and looked at her confusedly. She nodded.

"That's true," Ife said softly.

Enitan blinked.

"What? But I didn't... Did I really?"

The girl giggled and turned back toward him with an appeasing gesture.

"I wasn't talking to you," she explained.

Enitan kept blinking like a rabbit in the headlights.

"But then what...? Why did...? Who...?" he stammered without a semblance of coherence.

Ife giggled again, joined this time by Palmon and Gabumon.

"Don't get all worked up. I'll tell you about it later. For now I have to get the bissap."

She gave the boy a mysterious smile and walked out of the room. Enitan wondered when the girl had acquired such a taste for showing off. As Ife made her way to the kitchen, a flash of green behind the front door caught her attention mere seconds before the bell rang. She grinned to herself and called out before diving inside the kitchen.

"_Enitan_! Someone's at the door for you!"

* * *

Enitan poked his head out of the dining room. His eye twitched, a side effect from blinking abuse. Ife was nowhere in sight. The doorbell rang again and he resigned himself to go and open the door, grumbling nonsense at the world all along. The boy composed himself and plastered on a syrupy smile certain to give diabetes to whoever was visiting before opening the door. Or would, had there been anybody. Enitan's eye twitched visibly when he resisted blinking. He turned his head left and right, but still no one was to be seen. Resolute to find the prankster he took a few step forward. Unfortunately, his foot cauht on a pile of CDs and he fell over accompanied with a loud crunching noise as several case exploded into plastic pieces.

Groaning in pain, the brown-eyed boy sat up and looked over the partly ruined pile only to recognize the numerous items that had disappeared from his room two days before. Anger swelled in his chest.

"Naba!" he roared. "I know you're somewhere around here, you mangy farting monkey!"

"Cho!" a voice exclaimed somewhere above his head. "Told you it wasn't a good idea."

Enitan processed the information and eventually concluded that Naba and Wormmon were sitting on the porch's roof. He stepped back a couple feet, careful not to walk over anything again and glared up at the older boy. Wormmon gave him back a sheepish look.

"Sorry. My idea."

Enitan sighed deeply in annoyance. He bent over and started to collect the broken cases.

"What do you want, exactly? A place to stay? Food?" he said in a sardonic tone without looking back at Naba.

The boy and his digimon dropped down next to him in a small dust cloud. Enitan noticed the boy had new clothing.

"No thanks. I have all I need right now. I was just going to give these back to you and get going on my own stuff," Naba answered innocently.

Enitan shook his head. Most of his collection could be salvaged, but a few were pretty much useless now. He frowned in annoyance, but relented to his good manners.

"Want to stay for lunch? Knowing Ife, she's cooked up enough tô to feed an army."

Naba's eyes gave a mischievous twinkle. Wormmon, on the other hand, looked genuinely tempted. The boy stepped in the overgrown house.

"Why, Enitan, I didn't know you cared!"

The addressee rolled his eyes and glared back before putting the CDs on a table.

"Shut up already! I'm just trying to be polite!"

"Oh Naba, how are you doing?" Ife dropped in the conversation.

"I could be doing better. Your boyfriend's not exactly the most enthusiastic host."

It was like watching a weather system. Ife's face palled while Enitan's flushed like measles. The boy was just short of having fumes coming out his ears.

"You know, it'd be much easier for everyone if you didn't leave big buttons around for people to push," Naba snickered, but stopped when the door slammed shut violently behind him.

"I am _not_ her boyfriend," Enitan said, his face twitching from repressed anger.

"Please..." Ife interrupted them. "I need to tell you two something."

"Speak up, then!" Enitan retorted irritably.

_Man..._ Naba though. _What a hair-trigger!_

* * *

While Wormmon was rather intrigued by whatever the girl had to say, his mind was not exactly on it. His stomach only wanted to direct his attention toward the delicious smell of food. From the sound of it, he could tell his friends were probably ankle deep in the stuff. A horned head poked out of the room. Gabumon gave the three children a passing glance before he noticed the green caterpillar.

"Hey, Wormmon!" he called over. "Get over here! The food's great!"

Wormmon quickly scuttled down the corridor, an expression of glee on his face.

* * *

No sooner had the digimon started on the food that all three kids entered the room, both boys deep in thoughts. Enitan muttered the words cycling through Arabic, Bambara and French. Upon hearing him, Palmon looked up at him in alarm. Enitan looked back at her.

"Can you repeat what you just said?" she requested.

Her voice was quivering.

"What? _La grande haine_?" Enitan repeated the French phrase.

"No, before that!" she exclaimed.

Enitan's eyebrows crossed, but the digimon insisted as if her life depended on it.

"'Koma ba'?" he repeated the words in bambara.

Wormmon and Gabumon looked up at this. The fur-wearing child digimon choked loudly on his mouthful of cake. Enitan went to his partner and began slapping him on the back.

"What? Did I say a taboo word or what?" he asked, puzzled.

"Komaba's the name of our village!" Palmon explained.

Everyone stood silent at this revelation, with the exception of the coughing and hacking Gabumon. With a migthy cough, the ball of saliva and paste was ejected from his throat and fell into the rice bowl. He continued to wheeze for several seconds, catching his breath in long, hoarse strokes.

"That's...not good, is it?" Naba asked.

"We have to go back to the Digital World!" Palmon blurted.

"But... Dinner?" Gabumon and Enitan weakly protested.

Palmon gave her friend a glare that probably told much more than what the humans could guess. Gabumon blushed deeply.

"Oh... Errr... Right, right away!" he sputtered.

**Authors' notes:** For all practical purposes, this chapter and the next one form a single unit.

As usual, explicative notes are available on my personal website, see my profile for the url.

I'd like to thank JJriddler, Drakys, Archive and everybody else who lent a helping hand.


	4. Voices in the desert

**Warnings and disclaimer:** As much as I'd like to have enough for that, the Diaries universe is Lord Archive's. All rights to Digimon belongs to Toei, Saban and a bunch of other companies. This chapter is rated **PG-13** for violence.

---------  
Chapter 4: Voices in the desert  
---------

The passage through the portal felt very different to the kids this time around. It was like (for lack of a better term) falling _up_ a tunnel of swirling colors. The trip made Enitan wish they had not been eating just before. He landed in unfamiliar sand and was getting up when his partner came out of the portal and knocked him over an overgrown tree root. He yelped in pain upon landing a second time in an inappropriate position. If the screaming coming from the other side was any indication, things had not been going really well there either.

After everyone's respective body parts and other possessions were sorted out, the group was able to examine their surroundings. The tree stood in the middle of a barren track of land over sixty feet wide, with nothing else around but the herbs of the savannah forever dried by the sun, and the occasional shrub or tree. Wherever they were, the kids did not recognize the place.

"Where are we?" Ife asked.

She was unnerved by the unexplainable absence of any plant, twig or even the smallest insect on the ground. The three digimon whispered between each others and eventually came to the conclusion that the village was somewhere about a mile west of their position.

"We'd better make it a quick walk, then. It's nearly noon."

* * *

Ife's comment quickly came to rest heavily on the children's unprotected shoulder. The sun pierced through the cloudless sky like a rip dripping down relentless light and heat on the travellers. Another large drop of sweat rolled down Enitan's forehead, crossed his brow and dropped to the ground. The boy looked up, swaying lightly under the heat, and wondered how the other kids could keep going on as if it was just a walk to the marketplace. Right before him, his partner staggered similarly, covered in sweat under his dripping pelt.

Naba, that snivelling little thief, was merely a dozen feet further away, and yet it seemed to Enitan like the entire Sahara was laid down between them. The taller boy turned around, looked back at them and stopped the others. He walked up to the reptile digimon, slid the pelt off his right arm and wrung it. Numerous droplets of liquid fell to the ground and the boy shook his head.

"Here. I'll carry that for you," Naba offered.

"Eh, thank you," Gabumon wheezed gratefully.

Just as he handed the piece of stripped fur over to Naba, Enitan reached over and snatched it from the other boy's grasp.

"I'll do it," he grunted.

Naba eyed him with raised eyebrows, but then shrugged and turned away. Gabumon gave is partner a warm smile, but Enitan was too busy tying the fur in a ballot at the end of his spear to notice. He swung the weapon back over his shoulder and set after the other kids without looking back at his partner.

* * *

The occasional scorch mark in the ground was the first sign that something was wrong. The black fumes coming from the village were the second. The destroyed buildings and apparent absence of any digimon confirmed something nasty had happened in Komaba. A quick check revealed the destruction of the TV-shaped dimensional gate the kids had previously used to travel to the Digital World. For all her self-control, Palmon was on the verge of tears.

"For once. Just once we could have prevented this. We could have stopped it. We could have..." she struggled to, but could not finish her phrase.

Bitter tears rolled down her cheeks. Ife hugged her partner.

"Don't be so pessimistic," the girl tried to reassure her. "Maybe the guys will find them."

Just as she spoke these words of hope, the boys and their partners crossed the destroyed wall of the village. Her face betrayed the question before she had to ask it, and they shook their heads.

"We're so-" Naba began to apologize, but Ife stopped him with a gesture.

"No. If someone ought to apologize, it's me," she said. "If I'd talked to you like I should have, if I hadn't tried to interpret the message my way, this might not have happened."

"You couldn't have known," Palmon sniffed.

"Nobody could have known," Wormmon concluded. "Nobody can be blamed for this. We've all been hoping it would never happen. We were wrong and we knew it; we just couldn't help it."

"What do you mean, you were 'hoping'?" Naba suddenly asked.

The other two chosen turned toward their respective partners. Palmon tried to blink the tears away. Despite her best efforts, she failed and resolved to wipe them away with her hand.

"It's been going on for months," she recounted. "Villages were attacked. The adults killed, the child-levels taken away. Nobody knew what was going on. Then the Gazimon started to move out of the desert."

"Gazimon?" Enitan asked his partner in a whisper.

"Like the one that attacked us when you came here for the first time," Gabumon whispered back.

Palmon continued: "They've been living there since the reformatting, and there hadn't been any problem, but now they sometimes attack travelers and settlements. When the... the... when _they_ —"

The three digimon had to repress a shudder at the evocation of whoever it was.

"Started to appear, it was too much. The tunnels were built so that we could travel with some amount of security."

"'They'? Who are 'they'?" Ife asked.

Palmon looked away.

"We...We don't really know. Digimon, we think. Nobody had ever seen such types before. They come from the desert. They destroy, they eat everything. Without speaking. Without a single word. Such mindless cruelty, it's..." she could not continue.

"Terrifying," Gabumon supplied.

"Even if we can kill a few, there's so many of them they even overtake adults," Wormmon continued.

"And _that_ is what we escaped back in the desert?" Enitan asked his partner.

Gabumon nodded.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Enitan asked the trio.

He turned to his partner with a frown.

"Why didn't you tell _me_?"

Gabumon averted his eyes under the boy's angry stare.

"We didn't think you'd understand," he explained. "We thought it'd be too much,after being transported here and all. And... to be honest... we were kinda happy to get away from it all. Away with you."

The kids remembered the fear and the horror that would come with the locusts. They understood all too well what it meant. To have everything stripped from you, even what you thought could not be taken away. More tears flowed from Palmon's eyes as she cried out:

"And now look where it has brought us!"

Gabumon went up to the plant digimon and hugged her.

"Palmon, stop it!" Ife snapped.

Everyone _goggled_ at the girl. She went on:

"The tracks are obvious. The scorch marks are still hot. If we move fast enough, we can catch up to them."

"You sure of that?" Enitan asked.

She shot him a defiant look.

"The least we can do is _try_, right?"

Palmon composed herself and escaped the reptile's arms. She would stand by her partner, wherever that led her. Wormmon nodded, but Naba only shrugged.

"It's probably not going to change much, but I don't see why we shouldn't try," the boy commented offhandedly.

Gabumon glanced back at Enitan. Despite all the doubts in his eyes, the boy could tell how much he wanted to go. _Sometimes friendship is about putting other people's desires before your own._

"I'm with you," he said.

"Don't give up on them just yet," Ife told the plant.

* * *

Footprints; a whole column of them across the landscape like a nasty scar. The mental picture reminded Enitan of his own, still not completely healed wound. Sometimes there was blood. Sometimes there were marks of something, or someone, being dragged along. Most of the footprints were virtually identical and they had to assume that all the attackers were of the same species of digimon. What bothered Enitan was that the footprints were certainly not _their_s. The creatures he'd seen could not leave such footprints.

"Ife?" he tried to catch her attention.

Her features were set in a serious expression he had never seen on her face before. It was gone already when she turned toward him, smiling.

"Yes?" she answered in her familiar, sweet tone.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked.

"Yes. Whoever attacked the village, it's probably not _them_. If Palmon's description is accurate, _they_ don't sound like the type to take prisoners," she said.

Enitan wanted to ask her why they should not tell the digimon. Their partners obviously believed they were walking to their deaths. And the fact that the tracks were obviously headed for the desert did not help the matter.

* * *

"What is that?" a deep voice asked as an alarm began to ring softly.

"Ooooohh... They are making our job easier!" a second voice excitedly replied. "One of them is carrying the signature we detected a few days ago!"

"Great. You realize it only makes him more powerful?" the first voice grunted.

"My point, exactly. It hasn't morphed. It hasn't been used already," the new voice explained. "Do you think we should send our little friends out to keep them company?"

"Yes," the first voice agreed. "They are nothing but flies at the moment. Clockmon's back will be covered, and the boss will be pleased."

* * *

_Your friends will face their fears. If they run away now, they'll never be able to fight._

Why couldn't it just stop talking? Why was it forcing her to put Palmon through this? Why couldn't she reassure her partner? Just because her fears would be confirmed did not mean...

_Because your friend must find where his strength lies. And because they must realize that they can vanquish even what they fear most._

Why couldn't it just make sense already? She wanted to answer the boy. She wanted nothing more than to tell him... Unfortunately, "A voice in my mind told me" didn't sound like a very sane answer.

* * *

"You still don't think this is worth it?" Wormmon questioned his partner.

Naba sighed. The digimon was sweet, but someone really needed to get the pink glasses off his face.

"Life's taught me there's little you can change in the world," he dryly retorted.

"How come? Can't you decide who you get to know, by whose side you'll live? Don't you believe in destiny?" Wormmon countered.

"The only thing destiny's brought me so far is people like Laji," Naba explained.

"Oh..."

The digimon's antennae drooped low enough to fall in the boy's face, and then rose back up.

"But didn't destiny bring us together?"

Naba conceded a faint smile. Maybe destiny was not all that bad.

* * *

Forward, forward, always forward. Forward was their sole order, forward they would go. And forward they would find their targets.

* * *

Gabumon squinted.

"Guys... something's coming."

"I don't see a thing," his partner commented.

Enitan had trouble seeing anything through the overheated air and the sweat burning his eyes. Gabumon must not have been much better off, considering that he had insisted on taking back his pelt, so the boy figured he should not be complaining.

"Look up!" Palmon told him.

Her voice unmistakably quivered in fear. Enitan's gaze raised and he wondered how he could have missed the column of dust rising in the wind. Whatever was approaching was doing so rapidly and silently. Gabumon tried to pull Enitan aside.

"We must hide!" he urged the boy.

"Where to, genius? We're in the middle of a desert!" Naba exclaimed.

The boy extended his arms out and spun twice for emphasis. The sudden movement caused Wormmon to topple down.

"Whatever we do, we'll stick out like a toubab on the national soccer team! I _knew_ this was hopeless!" Naba continued.

"Nobody forced you to come," Enitan retorted. "And I don't hear you offering a solution."

He would have loved to say he knew how to get them out of this mess, but he had nothing to offer. Naba's arms and head dropped. He sighed deeply, his hand reaching for the pouch full of stones at his waist.

"Fighting, always fighting..."

Enitan spun back toward the older boy. His hand loosened and his spear dropped in the sand.

"What? Are you serious? We're going to...?"

Ife reached to her back to draw an arrow from her quiver.

"Of course we're going to. I don't see you coming up with anything better either!" she retorted.

"But... I thought... We'd... Isn't it..." Enitan attempted to string together an intelligible answer.

"Yes, it's our destiny," Ife added softly. "But nobody ever said it'd be easy. What? Did you think destiny would only have us waltzing in here and everything would turn out alright?"

She put a hand to his shoulder.

"But it doesn't work like that. And sometimes, there's not much difference between destiny and doom..."

Enitan slumped to his knees. His face slowly reddened in an anger he didn't know how to direct. He lashed back.

"Then why are we here? Why are we doing this? Why?" he yelled at the girl.

"I'm doing this because that's the only thing I can do," the girl calmly answered.

She strung her bow and looked back toward the incoming dust column. They could make out groaning sounds not far beyond the next dune. Naba threw a stone in the air and caught it back before slipping it in his sling.

"I'm doing this because there's nothing else I can do," he stated and looked back over his shoulder at the noble boy, "And you? Why are you doing this?"

Enitan fell on all fours, his hands shuffling about in the sand. A tear rolled down his cheek and disappeared in the ground. _Do I really have a reason? Is this what destiny's all about?_ A scaled hand took his own and pulled him up. He looked at his partner's scarlet eyes and a pale smile stretched his lips. Green and red bodies deformed by the heat appeared over the top of the dune. The three Digimon gasped, terrified.

"But... They always come out at night!" Palmon exclaimed.

"Cho! Not anymore, apparently," Naba grumbled, stating the obvious.

After looking for it and spotting it, Enitan collected his spear. The boy picked himself up and held the weapon next to him, blade sticking out to the sky.

"I guess I'm doing this... for a friend," he said.

The wave of green globs was apparently covered in large red spikes. A small group detached from the frontline and rolled down the dune. The digimon were formed of two distinct ovoid parts linked by what looked like yellow flexible pipe. Bulging yellow eyes emerged from the upper sphere. The lower globe was largely taken by a humongous mouth with a ridiculously limited set of fangs lining it. The kids and digimon braced for the assault when Enitan's digivice exploded in blinding blue light. The wave of assailant slowed slightly at this unexpected development. From the digivice burst a spinning shape Enitan recognized as the Digimental he'd found two days before. The object flew toward Gabumon, who was engulfed in the light.

"_Gabumon, armor evolve!_"

A lightning bolt fell from the empty sky and scattered in small arcs all around the digimon. A series of metal sheets coursing with electricity rose from the sands and surrounded the lizard. The box then began to crumble like an inverted origami paper fold. With a final small wave of energy, the light dissipated through the ground, leaving there what Enitan first thought was a small yellow and blue construction vehicle, until it spoke in a booming metallic voice:

"_Building new bonds of friendship, Kenkimon!_"

The dumbstruck children looked up to see a face carved in a piston-like structure where one would have expected a control cabin. The newly evolved Kenkimon had two triangular caterpillar tracks for legs, a forklift for a right arm, a backhoe for a left one and a small crane on its back. With a noise of hydraulic machinery, Kenkimon moved in front of the group.

"Stand back!" he warned them.

* * *

"What! Oh no... The boss isn't going to like that!" a voice panicked in the darkened room.

"Pah!" the other voice snorted derisively. "Just flies! We've done away with more powerful digimon than that. And afterward, we'll just retrieve the power source."

He chuckled evilly.

"Strenght is in number. If we send the whole lot of them out, they can evolve to Perfect and still not get out of it."

* * *

The children and digimon scrambled back before the newcomers approaching with no intent of singing epics. Kenkimon raised his backhoe as blue energy began to build up in it.

"Hyper Bulldozer!"

When the ball reached the size of it's container, he swung the arm as if throwing a bowling ball. The attack tracked along the ground and created a wall of sand in front of the children which temporarily hid the red and green digimon. When the sand fell back, it revealed a deep, vitrified trench protecting the group. It crackled and sizzled as it rapidly cooled down. A second Hyper Bulldozer created a wedge-shaped fort with Kenkimon standing just outside the point.

"Gabumon?" Enitan asked. "Is that really you?"

"Call me Kenkimon now. I armor evolved... Thank you for being a friend."

"Didn't we leave that thing back home?" Enitan asked in amazement.

"Enitan! Now's not the time for questions!" Ife yelled at him.

The digimon kept pouring over the dune. When the first green creatures went within Kenkimon's reach, he violently swung his arm at them. With a groan of pain, they flew into the air and landed dozens of feet away. They rolled around for a few seconds, then bounced back up to join the assault again, apparently none the worse for it. Kenkimon swung both arms wildly, but despite his best attempts at keeping the innumerable digimon in check, some slipped past him. They tried to jump across the trench, but failed miserably. Enitan saw his chance and thrust his weapon down at the green glob, but despite the boy putting all his weight in the blow, the creature just bend and snapped back, as if it was made of rubber.

Enitan was sent on his back in the sand. As he got back up, he saw one of the yellow-eyed creature fly at him, it's mouth open in a silent scream of rage. The mouth closed and opened back, launching a cloud of ominous green gaz.

* * *

Ife pulled on the bowstring until it was on the verge of breaking, holding the arrow with an uncertain hand. She fired at one of the jumping creatures, but the projectile apparently had no effect; it merely skidded off the rubbery skin and broke on one of the spikes. Ife blinked in panic as the creature disappeared from sight into the pit before her.

"What...?" she mumbled.

"Poison Ivy!"

Palmon's fingers extended and thoroughly battered the red and green bigmouth. The attack did not seen to have any effect beyond causing it to fall back on the other side of the trench.

"Poison Ivy!"

The plant reiterated her attack and grabbed another digimon by the head. She raised it, intent with slamming it into the ground.

"Wait! Throw it up! I need an easy target!" Ife called for her partner.

Palmon's eyebrows raised, but she just shrugged and obeyed. The digimon spun high in the air, its mouth wide open in an angry growl. Ife aimed and fired. The arrow flew through the air and entered the open mouth. The creature merely closed it and apparently swallowed. Ife and Palmon's eyes widened.

"It... ate it. It just ate it like it was some piece of fruit!" Palmon panicked.

Ife took an unsteady step back.

"What _are_ these things?" she breathed out.

* * *

"Sticky Net!"

A creature was enveloped by the attack and glued on the spot. Then the spikes on his body flew out through the air, ripping the attack to shreds. Naba was beyond himself with uselessness. He kept throwing stones as hard as he could, and he could throw them pretty hard with his sling, but he could not seem to get any reaction. The projectiles just bounced off the creatures as if they were mere pieces of fluff. He eventually threw the weapon down in the sand.

"This is useless!"

"Come on, Naba, you can't give up now!" Wormmon encouraged him.

"If only it had some effect!" Naba grumbled.

Another of the dangerously numerous child-levels nearly jumped at the two of them, but Wormmon was quick to react.

"Silk Thread!"

The attack hit the digimon square in the eyes and it fell back with a loud growl of pain. Naba's eyes light up.

"The eyes' the weak point! Hey, Enitan!"

He turned around excitedly just in time to see the cloud speed up toward Enitan. The only thing the boy could do was to shield his face with his arms. Naba grabbed them and pulled the other boy aside. The cloud landed in the sand were Enitan had been sitting seconds before and the ground began to sizzle. Kenkimon's voice came with a very angry tone.

"That does it! Enitan?" he inquired.

Enitan's face hardened at his partner's request.

"Go for it."

"Crazy Crane!"

The crane hook glowed with green energy and was launched forward, right in the middle of the assailants. Where it landed, a large explosion sent the digimon flying. One of them flickered once or twice before vaporizing into a cloud of small particles. A single one. The Digidestined and chosen digimon collectively had large beads of sweat form on their heads.

"Okay... This is ridiculous," Enitan commented.

"How come these bouncing stomachs are so strong!" Ife asked.

"We told you! Nobody knows!" Palmon yelled back.

"Ibukumon... The name's fitting," Kenkimon commented.

Several of the newly christened Ibukumon massed against his caterpillar tracks. They opened their mouths in unison and released a cloud of green gases that completely hid the tracks. Wormmon and Palmon launched their attacks blindly.

"Sticky Net!"

"Poison Ivy!"

The purple fingers and threaded net disappeared in the cloud. Fractions of seconds later, Palmon was tugged forward violently. She only owed not falling into the pit before her to Naba's reflexes. They pulled back, with no apparent effects.

"They got my fingers!" Palmon panicked.

She did not dare pulling he fingers back completely for fear the creature would cross to their side. A pause, then she shrieked in pain.

"Ack! It burns, It _burns_! Get it off! Please!"

The tugging continued, harder. The group centered around the wailing plant to try and pull her away to safety. Kenkimon was helpless, not daring to attack in the middle of the cloud for fear of touching his friend's fingers. He continued to keep the Ibukumon as far away from the children as he could. More cries of attack came from the Ibukumon crowd. The gas condensed on the machine digimon and the bright yellow began to take a nasty reddish tint.

_Acid!_ Enitan thought.

"Kenkimon! Back away! They're trying to damage your caterpillars!" he ordered.

His partner began to move back hastily with worrying grinding noises. Naba suddenly shoved Ife's bow and arrow in her hands and pointed at the creature with Palmon's in his mouth.

"The eyes! Aim for the eyes!" he yelled.

He suited the action to the word and launched his last rock forward. It hit the Ibukumon straight in its left eye. Blinded by pain, it tried even harder to pull back Palmon, and Naba had to join his efforts to Enitan and Wormmon's so that the plant would not fall down. Ife carefully took aim and released the arrow. It flew forward and stabbed the digimon in the head, right into the eyes. The orb snapped back, then the digimon exploded in green particles.

"Nice shot!" Enitan cheered.

The girl blushed and briefly looked away.

"Thank you..."

She did not get to say more, as the plant's finger came back. They lashed violently at the group, completely out of control. Palmon herself had a red mark left across her chest. Wormmon and Naba noticed that it rather felt like being hit by Fatima's ruler, only less painful.

"They're burned!" Ife exclaimed upon giving the appendages a closer look.

"I... can take it. We must... win. Can't.. let them just... get out of here," Palmon panted.

"This is it! _Nobody_ hurts my friends!" Kenkimon said angrily as he came to cross the trench.

Blue energy built up in his backhoe as it raised high above the kids.

"Hyper Bulldozer!"

The attack exploded violently amongst the green and red horrors. Several of them flickered and vanished into clouds of particles. The particles were drawn to the body of those of their comrades that were still alive. They did not seem affected by the others' death.

"Are they doing what I think?" Wormmon asked with a disgusted tone.

"They're absorbing the data!" Palmon screamed.

"Hyper Bulldozer!"

Kenkimon's second attack had even less of an effect, barely deleting a couple Ibukumon and apparently strengthening the remaining ones. He thrust his forklift forward and the tips penetrated the heads exactly in the eyes. More data was sent flying. Enitan looked around to see nothing but additional digimon pouring over the crest of the dune. Reinforcements. Another series of acid attacks was sent at the armored digimon's caterpillars .

"Kenkimon! We have to get away from here!" Enitan ordered his partner.

"But..." the digimon tried to protest.

"We can't win against so many of them!" he yelled back. "And if they jam you, there's no way we'll make it out of there alive!"

"Okay..."

The digimon did not seem to agree until a loud clanking sound came up, indicating that something had broke. Enitan's fingernails dug into the palm of his hand as his partner briefly struggled to move back. With another loud noise the machinery resettled into position. The Armor digimon rolled around and sped away from the battle, making sure to keep his speed low enough, so he could stay between the children, their partner and the other digimon. The Ibukumon immediately gave chase.

* * *

"Look what you've done, you idiot! You only strengthened them!"

"But, elder..."

"_Shut up!_ The _only_ reason I keep you around is to purify the pool. Remember that. Now call your bastardized minions back. We have data to upload."

A gulp.

"Yes, of course."

* * *

Without a word, without a look back, the entire small army turned their back to the Chosen Children and bounced back toward the desert. The children were left frozen by this unexpected development. Kenkimon tried to follow them for a while, but Naba ordered him off. Enitan scowled.

"Not a good idea. You said it yourself: we can't win against so many of them," Naba explained. "That'd only get us killed."

"Killed... Did we... Did I...?" Ife mumbled.

The girl's hands began to shake and she dropped her bow in her hand with a horrified look. Her breathing shortened.

"They were... Were they?" Ife continued.

"Digimon? What else could they be?" Palmon inquired.

Ife began to wobble slightly. Her partner wrapped her burnt hands around the girl and brought her to sit. Enitan just looked on, incapable of speaking. Naba continued to look toward the horizon where the Ibukumon had disappeared.

"Did I...?" the girl asked again.

"You did," Naba deadpanned without looking at her. "You aimed and shot. A nice shot at that. You released the arrow, nobody else. You'd better cope with it."

Enitan looked at the boy in disbelief.

"How can you be so jaded!" he exclaimed. "Do you realize what she did?" he added, his voice marked with disgust.

Ife began to sob softly. Naba did not grace either of them with a look.

"Kill or be killed. Sometimes there's no choice. I learned that. You'll have too," he shot Enitan a harsh look. "_They_ certainly did."

* * *

_And I had no answers to that. When Kenkimon looked at me. When he wanted me to allow him to kill these monsters who'd killed those he knew and loved, I told him "Go for it". Without a second thought. I told him to kill them. And I fully believed that it was the right thing to do. Does the _belief _that you are right make _killing _right? Did Ife have the same hought? Could she even have such thoughts? This is not some holy war, this is _our _war... and the first casualties are our doing. Ife's doing. I still can't believe it. Kenkimon killed, not me, but she just did._

_They all stayed in the Digital World to spread the news, but I wish Gabumon didn't. It's just... so difficult. I wish he was here. He'd be able to reassure me. To tell me there's a reason for all of this. I know he would. That's what friends are for._

Enitan flipped over the small electronic device, a sort of small computer. The blue symbol embedded on the digimental flashed on the screen. How could things appear out of thin air like that? It made no sense! But then being destined to save a parallel world made of computer data hardly made any sense in the first place, did it?

Did it?

* * *

_I can't stop thinking about it. About what he said._ Learn it. _Enitan asked the right question. How could he be so casual about it? I've killed today, and it's certainly not something women are expected to do around here. I've had to kill before. Chickens, back at the concession. It's natural, isn't it? They are animals, and we have to kill them somehow, to eat. Is it really what I was thinking when I fired? It's so blurry, I can barely remember. Was I really so... direct? No... so hateful? Did I hate that creature so much that I had to kill it? Palmon and the others... They obviously did. But could I really hate that much? Palmon... I sure hope she's alright. She said she'd be, and she should, considering what she did for Enitan, but I'm still worried sick..._

The voice in the back of her head had kept silent and she did not know if she was glad or annoyed about it. Whoever... Whatever it was had helped make some sense out of this. And then it had just vanished. She could not lose her mind. Not now. Not like her.

"Aunt Inaya..." Ife whispered.

* * *

_Why? Why couldn't I do anything? I was there! I was _supposed _to help! And I could only stand there chucking _stones_. They did something. They did _everything _and all I could do was to make snide remarks at them! Enitan's got that spear of his, and Ife that big-ass bow, and what do I get? A fucking sling. But then what would I do with a bow? When real troubles come around, what am I supposed to do? Shoot pebbles up their ass? I feel so useless. I'm here, and Wormmon's back there, and still there's nothing I can do for him._

* * *

**Authors' notes:** As usual, explicative notes are available on my personal website, see my profile for the url.

In adition to Riddler, Drakys and Archive, Xuxu gets a big "Thank you!" this time around. I don't know how I could keep up the quality without all of you!


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